The Monkees: Instant Replay (Japanese Pressing) CD Track Listing

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The Monkees Instant Replay (Japanese Pressing) (1969)
Instant Replay (Japanese Pressing)\n1992 BMG Victor - Japan\n\nOriginally Released February 15, 1969\nJapanese CD Edition Released October 21, 1992\nRhino Remastered + Expanded CD Edition Released January 24, 1995\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: By 1969's Instant Replay, it was all over but the funeral. Peter Tork had already left the fold and the songs were little more than disjointed solo vehicles for the remaining three, combined with older unreleased tracks from the vaults. This afforded far too much rope for schmaltzy Jones ballads, although Nesmith salvages the day once again with tasty country inflections on the wistful "Don't Wait for Me" and "While I Cry." This otherwise slight collection -- for intensive Monkees fans only -- is at least beefed up by some interesting previously unreleased songs, rather than just alternate mixes. -- Roch Parisien\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nThere'll be another song., November 23, 2005 \nBy Johnny Heering "trivia buff" (Bethel, CT United States)\nThis Monkees album was released in February, 1969. It was the first album released after Peter Tork left the group. It is a hodgepodge of material from various recording sessions. Some of the tracks date all the way back to 1966, being leftovers from their second album. Surprisingly, the album is actually pretty good. Most of the songs are good, and there aren't any truly bad songs here. I particularly like "Through the Looking Glass", "I Won't Be the Same Without Her", "Me Without You", "You and I", "Tear Drop City" and "A Man Without a Dream". The strangest track is Micky's "Shorty Blackwell", which is a long, self-indulgent, experimental piece. It's a failure, but an interesting failure. The CD adds seven bonus tracks. The best of these is "St. Matthew", a Nesmith song that is arguably the best Monkees song that was unreleased during the group's orginal run. Monkees fans should enjoy this album. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nNesmith Saves it!, July 11, 2005 \nBy Morten Vindberg\n"Instant Replay" was the first Monkees album as a 3-piece. Peter Tork had left shortly before in frustration that the group still was not given very much influence on their music and records. \n\nThe group's popularity in general was also waning at this point, and there would be no more top 20 hit-singles. \n\nSince their two fine 1967 albums, they had not really worked as a band on their recordings. It was more or less 4 solo artists working on the same overall concept. \n\nThis is very clearly the case on this album. A very mixed bag of family pop, country and a few leftovers from earlier sessions given new overdubs ( strings etc. ). \n\nThough the general impression may be one of a group falling apart, there are some fine moments on the album. Especially Mike Nesmith shines. He was obviously the greatest musical capacity in the group. His musical direction had always tended towards country, and even more on this album. His songs are not spoiled by too heavy production like many other tracks. \n\nThe sparsely instrumentated "While I Cry" is very moving, and Nesmith's version of the Goffin/King song "I Won't Be the Same Without Her" is pure pleasure; almost Byrds-like. \n\nHis two country-flavoured bonus-tracks "Carlisle Wheeling" and "St Matthew" are great additions that both would have helped the original album, had they been included. \n\nMickey Dolenz, usually considered the lead-vocalist, is in front on two leftovers from the 1966 sessions. "Through the Looking Glass" could have been a fine track, but the new overdubbed version lacks the charm of the early recordings. The bonus-track version of the song is probably the track that sounds the most like early Monkees. "Tear Drop City" is another early Boyce/Hart production, sounding very much like a "Last Train to Clarkesville" rip-off. Somehow the song never really works, still one of the better Dolenz tracks. The rest of his songs are either too much family-pop or too heavily produced. \n\nEven worse are most Davy Jones tracks. Best is probably is the sing-along pop-tune with a very Beatles-inspired production. His own "You and I" could probably have been a good song, but suffers from too heavy production. The rest are at best forgettable. Among the bonus tracks the single "Someday Man" is passable. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nInstant Replay (1969), December 25, 2003 \nBy Mr. S. St Thomas "suckerfly" (UK)\nWhat a shame that we can't physically go back in time and alter history. Given that ability, my advice to The Monkees in 1969 would have been 'don't quit'. Not because they were the best band in history, or all of the material released on INSTANT REPLAY and THE MONKEES PRESENT were classics, but merely because there are moments on these albums that truly shine. But no matter what we say or do cannot alter the fact that at the time, The Monkees were hated and ignored by the media and a good portion of the record buying public, for reasons not truly deserved. Peter Tork had left the band in 1968, which also appears to be one of their most productive and prolific recording periods. On these final albums with Mike Nesmith, The Monkees may have just started getting on to a good thing. But public indifference and bad vibes killed it.\nINSTANT REPLAY surprises me on many levels. My acquaintance with Nesmith's solo career is fairly well established, and his solo albums from 1970 ~ present I highly recommend. The material offered on INSTANT REPLAY by Nesmith truly shows the direction and talents he had prior to his departure from the band. I am also pleasantly surprised by Davy Jones particularly on this album. The material he wrote, produced or chose to sing suited his voice and style far better than earlier offerings. I cannot profess to be a huge Davy Jones fan, but my mind certainly changed when hearing INSTANT REPLAY. I feel Mickey Dolenz is better represented on THE MONKEES PRESENT than on this album. Which is where a time machine would come in very handy. Anyone who has both offerings, including the alternative and extra tracks can compile a Monkees 1969 album that really is a strong, cohesive set, and nothing to be ashamed of. There is no changing the public indifference at the time though, sadly enough. If fortunes could be reversed, a 1969 album by the Monkees comprised of the material that really excelled, might just have a different fate.\n\n'Through The Looking Glass' (by Boyce, Hart & Baldwin) opens the album. Obviously a single due to its insistent singalong chorus, I personally would not have gone with this song. It's good, don't get me wrong, but I think there is material on this album much better. 'Don't Listen To Linda'(by Boyce & Hart) is a great song, the first of the Davy Jones vocal set of material, and its one of those I would have put to the side for that Monkees '69 album. No time machine though. 'I Won't Be The Same Without Her'(Goffin & King), one of the older tracks is another set aside. This song is fantastic, with great vocals by Mike Nesmith (and Glen Campbell). I was very surprised at the quality of the material by this point of the album. 2 truly great tracks almost from the start. 'Just A Game'(by Dolenz), 'Me Without You'(by Boyce & Hart), and 'Don't Wait For Me'(by Nesmith) I feel are outshined by the 2 songs before them and after them. I am hesitant to say that about a Nesmith composition, because I feel so much of his material is as good as the outside writers provided The Monkees, but I'll explain my reasons for 'Don't Wait For Me' not being included later. Dolenz's 'Just A Game' is a very short song, but I feel it needed a bit more work. No time machine. \n\nAnd now the two gems of INSTANT REPLAY, Jones & Chadwick's 'You and I' and Nesmith's 'While I Cry'. 'You and I' changed my mind about Davy Jones quite abruptly. This song is one of the standouts in The Monkees entire recording career, and to hear Jones singing such a heavy rock arrangement, that he also wrote, was a delight, honestly. That it boasts Neil Young as the lead guitar soloist is another plus. And I hear Nesmith's 'While I Cry' as a definite single release. Absolutely beautiful song.\n\n'Teardrop City'(by Boyce & Hart) is obviously 'Last Train to Clarksville' revamped. Shame really. 'The Girl I Left Behind Me' by Sayer & Sedaka is a decent song, but not the strongest of the set. But these are followed by another excellent Goffin & King song 'A Man Without A Dream'. Davy Jones in hindsight has announced reservations about the production of Bones Howe on this track, but personally I feel this song has nothing wrong in this area. The material suits Jones voice and public persona, and my appreciation of this style of music has grown in recent years. Maybe when I was younger I would have avoided a track like this, but 'A Man Without A Dream' has a strong root in Motown, and Jones sings this song in his natural singing range, which shows how good a vocalist he actually is. And let's call Dolenz's 'Shorty Blackwell' an ambitious step. Honestly, Dolenz is a songwriter with great possibilities, and he certainly was more experimental than he may be given credit for. Certainly his songs on THE MONKEES PRESENT are some of the most innovative I've heard from the 60's. 'Shorty Blackwell' works on some levels, and on others doesn't, but I give the man an A for ambition. A bit more time spent on arrangement, and this might have been The Monkees 'Shangri~La' (see The Kinks).\n\nThe bonus material has songs I would personally have substituted for the released tracks. Nicol's & Williams 'Someday Man' is another strong song that Jones sings, and produced by Bones Howe. This style really suits Jones as much as the heavier rock of 'You and I'. An obvious single despite the numerous 'sections' of the song, which go into half time and back out again. The two other tracks I would have saved were Nesmith's 'Carlisle Wheeling' and 'St.Matthew', both much stronger than his own 'Don't Wait For Me'.\n\nThere is a great album here, and combined with THE MONKEES PRESENT, taking the gems from each you'd have a pretty amazing and solid 1969 Monkees album. My choices for inclusion would be:\n\nDon't Listen To Linda (Boyce & Hart)\nI Won't Be The Same Without Her (Goffin & King)\nYou and I (Jones & Chadwick)\nWhile I Cry (Nesmith)\nA Man Without A Dream (Goffin & King)\nSomeday Man (Nicols & Williams)\nCarlisle Wheeling (Nesmith)\nSt. Matthew (Nesmith) \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nUNDERRATED UNEVEN EFFORT FROM THE PRE FAB....THREE?, March 13, 2003 \nBy Jared Insell "hitman_37" (Canada)\nThe Monkees commercial fortunes had been falling for about a year by the time 'Instant Replay' had hit record stores in 1969. 1968 had closed rather badly for the group. HEAD was not the cinematic masterpiece the Monkees had envisioned it to be, instead it was a box office disaster. To make things worse, after the filming for their doomed tv special '33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee' Peter Tork quit the group in December of '68, unhappy with the direction the Monkees were going. Only the trio of Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz and David Jones were to see in the new year. A year in which the entire Monkees project would give one last choking gasp before it completely died. With the departure of Tork, the bombing of HEAD and the TV show long gone, the future looked undeniably bleak for the Monkees. The trio however didn't croak as the critics had expected; they were still dishng out recordings. Led by Nesmith, the three piece Monkees band worked really hard to try and regain the popularity they once had. When 'Instant Replay' was released in Febuary, The Monkees mounted a concert tour with an R&B group called Sam and The Goodtimers to promote the album and made TV appearances on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson and other talk shows. Despite this more commercially active Monkees group (which hadn't really been seen since 1967), the public didn't go for it. The Monkees 1969 releases scanned the lower regions of the Billboard charts, concerts were poorly attended and the TV promotions didn't help either. The Monkees kinda stepped back on this album though and let other producers and songwriters try to work their magic to contemperize the Monkees sound so they could appeal to a more mature audience. In the end Instant Replay was actually an improvement for The Monkees reaching a respectable #32 on the charts but it was obvious the Monkees were dead. It's somewhat unfortunate that this is what happend because the Monkees definetly weren't afraid to get their hands dirty and work for the success. \nIf anything the music on 'Instant Replay' shows that the Monkees were maturing musically despite the fact that this album was a hodge podge of recordings from different times. 'Instant Replay' is unfortunately vastly underrated. Many have dubbed it as the Monkees weakest 60's album. Ok so it's no 'Pisces' or 'Headquarters' or even 'Present' nonetheless in my opinion it surpasses the bulk of other Monkees records (particularily the Kirshner era albums). Michael Nesmith really came out on his own on this album. His songwriting just seemed to be getting better and better as time went on. Here we see some of the material form his legendary Nashville sessions. WHILE I CRY is one of the most beautiful country ballads ever. This song should have been a single. Another nice country ballad here is DON'T WAIT FOR ME showing Nez's further journey into the country rock genre. The last Nez track here is Goffin/King's I WON'T BE THE SAME WITHOUT HER a funky rocker left over from 1966 however it strangely fits well in 1969 and doesn't sound dated. Davy Jones kinda stepped out of his role as a songwriter and let the other producers experiment with his sound(trying to make it more adult contemperary). His best song here is his own YOU AND I. Somewhat of a 'rocker shocker' especially coming from Davy. This track features some great Neil Young guitar. Most of Davy's other tracks are love songs. DON'T LISTEN TO LINDA is a schmaltzy pop ballad but well produced and a great improvemnet over the bouncy early version. THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME is also a leftover from 'The Birds The Bees And The Monkees'. Like DON'T LISTEN TO LINDA, this track is sickly sweet but the production values are great and it's an excellent improvement over the previous version. The best of Davy's ballads here though is the almost funky R&B feel of A MAN WITHOUT A DREAM which has an almost Motown sound to it. The last Jones track is the Beatles 'Your Mother Should Know' rip off ME WITHOUT YOU which is probably his worst trakc here but still this is pretty darn catchy. Micky Dolenz takes his hand a songwriting for a change. The first two songs are Boyce And Hart tunes though. The albmu opener THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS had been done before but was very choppy. This version is an improvement and is a good album opener. Micky also trys to make a hit out of the Clarksville-clone single TEARDROP CITY. Despite the resemblence this song has an excellent guitar riff that stands out on it's own. When it came ot songwriting Dolenz went very experimental here. His beautiful ballad JUST A GAME is an excellent track proving that he was quite a good songwriter. The overblown epic SHORTY BLACKWELL however shows how self indulgence can ruin good music. This song is the album's worst track with mediocre vocals by Dolenz and his sister, Coco; singing about Micky's cat and the other Monkees. The bonus tracks for 'Instant Replay' are the best in the Rhino reissue series though. Despite the fact it probably should have been on 'The Monkees Present', SOMEDAY MAN finally makes an appearance on an album. This great track was the b-side to 'Listen To The Band'. Two Nesmith tracks also appear here for the first time the excellent CARLISLE WHEELING (this is the best version) and ST.MATTHEW which hailed from the Nashvile sessions. Dolenz' funky ROSEMARIE is an intresting jam but not really a song. A wonderful ballad called SMILE written by Davy also appears here for the first time. The last two tracks are merely alternate versions of THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS and ME WITHOUT YOU both are weaker than the originals but still worth a listen. \n\nOverall 'Instant Replay' is vastly underrated. Yeah yeah it's uneven and it's not the best Moknees album out there. However the majority of songs on her are some of The Monkees finest recordings. This album has quite a variety and was the first Monkees album I bought. Although it might not be the best intro to the group this is the record that got me hooked on the Monkees. Highly recommended. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nMonkees trio succeeds with ecclectic offering, February 17, 2003 \nReviewer: A music fan\n\nINSTANT REPLAY was released in February 1969, right before Peter Tork departed the group after his final appearance as a Monkee in the television special "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee." Though Tork is absent, the quality of the album does not suffer. INSTANT REPLAY, however, is more of a collection of solo songs by each remaining band member, all collected together under the name 'Monkees.' \nMichael Nesmith steals the show with his classic "While I Cry," a bittersweet ballad with wonderful backing vocals provided by Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones. Nesmith shines again on his own "Don't Wait For Me," as well as on Carole King's "I Won't Be The Same Without Her." \n\nMicky Dolenz comes into his own on INSTANT REPLAY, providing the should-have-been hit single "Through the Looking Glass" as well as his own "Just A Game." Micky does his best to create a hit out of "Teardrop City" (#56) but the song suffers from sounding too much like "Last Train to Clarksville." However, Micky's self-penned "Shorty Blackwell" is easily his weirdest song, but listen for the lyrical references to the other members of the band in it. Yes, the song is odd, but it works. \n\nEven Davy Jones delivers the hard rocking "You and I" on INSTANT REPLAY, written by Jones himself about the dwindling fortunes of the Monkees. And, oh yeah, that's Neil Young guesting on lead guitar. This album is also home to probably the greatest Jones vocal on record, "A Man Without a Dream," the B-side to "Teardrop City." \n\nDon't forget the excellent bonus selections of "Someday Man" (B-Side to the "Listen to the Band" single) and of course, "St. Matthew," another Nez masterpiece.\n\nBuy this! \n\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nAn overlooked gem, March 12, 2002 \nBy C.H. (Beach Park, IL)\n\nBy 1969 The Monkees seemed to be running out of steam. Peter departed, the show had been canceled, their creative 1968 theatrical movie "Head" and 1969 TV-Special "331/3 Revolutions Per Monkee" met little fanfare. Too bad this creative and energetic gem was lost in the shuffle. Mostly a collection of solo efforts and leftovers, this collection is definitely worth a listen. Micky kicks it off with the Beatlesque "Through The Looking Glass" and contributes the well produced "Just A Game" as well as an opus to his cat, "Shorty Blackwell". Davy sings the mauldlin "The Girl I Left Behind Me" as well as the hard hitting "You and I". Mike stands out with my personal favorite, "While I Cry". "Tear Drop City" is a pale "Last Train To Clarksville" remake. Worthy bonus tracks include "Someday Man" and "Smile". \nAn overlooked gem, March 12, 2002 \nBy C.H. (Beach Park, IL) - See all my reviews \n\nBy 1969 The Monkees seemed to be running out of steam. Peter departed, the show had been canceled, their creative 1968 theatrical movie "Head" and 1969 TV-Special "331/3 Revolutions Per Monkee" met little fanfare. Too bad this creative and energetic gem was lost in the shuffle. Mostly a collection of solo efforts and leftovers, this collection is definitely worth a listen. Micky kicks it off with the Beatlesque "Through The Looking Glass" and contributes the well produced "Just A Game" as well as an opus to his cat, "Shorty Blackwell". Davy sings the mauldlin "The Girl I Left Behind Me" as well as the hard hitting "You and I". Mike stands out with my personal favorite, "While I Cry". "Tear Drop City" is a pale "Last Train To Clarksville" remake. Worthy bonus tracks include "Someday Man" and "Smile". \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nOverlooked, Underrated but Uneven, January 28, 2000 \nReviewer: A music fan\n\nThis album was released as an LP in early 1969. I remember looking at the album repeatedly in stores at that time, intrigued by the cover, album title ("Instant Replay" was a new sports feature on TV broadcasts at that time), unknown song titles, and the faces of just 3 of the 4 Monkees on the cover. I never did buy it then, I hadn't bought "Head" the previous fall, and had been really disappointed in the "Birds, Bees" album and the last episodes of the TV series the year before. Most first-generation fans passed on buying "Instant Replay" at the time, and it's a shame, because even though it was made up of leftover older material, it was a better "pop" album than "Head" or "Birds, Bees." I suspect if this album had been released a year earlier instead of "Birds, Bees", it would have been a more palatable followup to the "Pisces" album, although it's certainly not as good. But "Instant Replay" does have a lot of very good songs on it. "Through the Looking Glass" is a good effort, and it's easy to imagine Peter having played piano on this if he'd remained in the group. The bonus CD remix of this song features great trumpet accents. "Don't Listen to Linda" is a polished Davy Jones vocal. Mike really shines with one of his best with "While I Cry," and would you believe that Neil Young actually plays guitar on "You and I"? I bought this album for the first time nearly a decade after it was released in a used record store and was pleasantly surprised by it, and although there are some clunkers on it, in my view it's an underrated album, really the last decent presentation of material by the Monkees in the 1960's. "Monkees Present" and the horrible bubblegum nightmare "Changes" followed, both more progressively depressing. "Instant Replay" is a nice bonue for fans of the original four albums who want to hear a little more of the material they sang on those early years. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nOuttakes "Plus", December 26, 1999 \nBy Henry R. Kujawa ("The Forbidden Zone" (Camden, NJ))\nAlmost a prototype of Rhino's MISSING LINKS albums, nearly half of this originally dated to sessions for their 1st & 2nd albums. The rest is a very quirky mix of styles and tastes which might have worked better if ALL the songs had been "new" ones at the time. My faves are "Through The Looking Glass", "I Won't Be The Same Without Her", "While I Cry" and "A Man Without a Dream", plus bonus tracks "Someday Man" (which had been the b-side of "Listen To the Band") and "Smile". I prefer the "regular" versions over any of the "alternate mixes", and as for the rest... oh well. I recall when this first came out in '69 looking it over and saying, "I don't know ANY of these songs!" This "mistake" would be rectified on their next 2 albums, both of which were heavily promoted on the Saturday morning reruns! \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nThe Monkees attempt for a "less-commercial" sound., May 28, 1998 \nBy HOOPERFAN@prodigy.net (United States)\n\nWhile it is easy to dismiss this album as being one of their less impressive efforts, a closer listen will make you reconsider. This is by no means a TERRIFIC album, but its eclectic nature is notable. From cheery pop ("Tear Drop City") to hard rock ("You and I") to country ("Don't Wait for Me"), this album covers a lot of ground. Highlights include the beautiful Nesmith song "While I Cry", Davy's "A Man Without a Dream" and Micky's "Shorty Blackwell". The Monkees' career in '69 was a shaky one, but this album shows that had it been more successful, the Monkees could have really invented themselves. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. Judge for yourself, maybe you'll think that this IS, in fact, one of their more impressive efforts. \n\n\nHalf.com Details \nContributing artists: Neil Young \n\nAlbum Notes\nThe Monkees: Davey Jones, Michael Nesmith, Mickey Dolenz.\n\nReissue producers: Andrew Sandoval, Bill Inglot.\nIncludes liner notes by Andrew Sandoval.\n\nThe Monkees' first album without Peter Tork, 1969's INSTANT REPLAY is a somewhat confused but ultimately successful blend of three very different musical styles. Micky Dolenz's obvious fondness for psychedelic pop and R&B grooves, Michael Nesmith's increasingly country-oriented tunes, and Davy Jones' music hall aspirations will strike the listener as either incongruous or charmingly contrasting when heard in toto.\nThe should-have-been-a-hit "Through the Looking Glass" is a Dolenz highlight, but his closing song, "Shorty Blackwell," may be the most divisive tune in the band's oeuvre. Some find the long, impressionistic tune unbearably pretentious, while others think it's an amusing, trippy, undeniably weird song not far removed from Van Dyke Parks' then-new album SONG CYCLE. The bonus tracks include a terrific version of Nesmith's "Carlisle Wheeling."
This folk cd contains 12 tracks and runs 33min 53sec.
Freedb: 8907ef0c

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