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The Monkees: Head (British Pressing) CD Track Listing

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The Monkees Head (British Pressing) (1968)
Head (British Pressing)\n1990 Lightning\n\nOriginally Released December 1, 1968\nLightning (British) CD Edition Released 1990 ??\nRhino Remastered + Expanded CD Edition Released November 15, 1994\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: This disc contains songs and snippets of dialogue from the Monkees' full-length feature film of the same name. Although their Emmy-winning television program had been cancelled in the spring of 1968, the quartet quickly regrouped and, with the assistance of budding actor/director Jack Nicholson, created a 90-minute surreal cinematic experience -- replete with matching soundtrack. Without question, both the movie and album are the most adventurous and in many ways most fulfilling undertaking to have been born of the Monkees' multimedia manufactured project. The music featured on both the screen as well as this album is a long strange trip from the Farfisa-driven bubblegum anthem "I'm a Believer." Perhaps even more telling is that Head became the first Monkees long-player not to include a Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart composition. As such, the talents of each member are uniquely showcased -- especially those of Peter Tork, whose contributions were previously too few and far between. Ironically, his acid rocker "Long Title: Do I Have to Do This All Over Again" and Eastern-flavored "Can You Dig It?" are not only among the best of the six original compositions on the soundtrack, but also among his finest Monkees offerings, period. Other notable tracks include Micky Dolenz's vocals on two Carole King works: the ethereal "Porpoise Song," which was co-authored by Gerry Goffin, and the Toni Stern collaboration on the pastoral "As We Go Along." The 1994 CD reissue includes six "bonus selections." Primary among them are the live version of Michael Nesmith's balls-to-the-wall rocker "Circle Sky" -- which highlights the self-contained quartet at its most incendiary -- and an unissued version of the Harry Nilsson-penned "Daddy's Song," featuring an alternate lead vocal from Nesmith rather than Davy Jones. -- Lindsay Planer\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nCircle Movie, March 9, 2007 \nBy Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth)\nPeter, Davy, Mickey and Mike hitting the water is the opening scene of HEAD and also the movie's finale, or as Davy says in "Ditty Diego": "...when you see the end in sight the beginning may arrive." In essence, HEAD is a giant circle-- this movie could literally run perpetually if one were to edit the ends together. But a single time through is more than enough. \n\nSeparated from HEAD's intentionally haphazard visuals, what is most obvious on this album is this band's disillusionment, disappointment, dissolution. The two year MONKEES trip was almost over. It had been an incredible experience for everyone, including us fans, but this simply couldn't last. HEAD was a swan song, and a swan dive. \n\nTHE PORPOISE SONG is beautiful and melancholy- a Gerry Goffin/Carole King masterpiece. \nCIRCLE SKY has an angry Mike Nesmith vocal. The guitars, mixed impossibly high, can't mask his message: "It looks like we've made it to the end." \nCAN YOU DIG IT?, written by Peter Tork, has intricate guitar lines everywhere. Again, lovely, yet sad. \nAS WE GO ALONG, another Carole King number, practically encapsulates the MONKEES and this film: "We'll make up our stories as we go along." \nDADDY'S SONG, written by Harry Nilsson, despite it's strange orchestration, is filled with the pain of an abandoned, embittered child, now grown. \nDO I HAVE TO DO THIS ALL OVER AGAIN? is Peter Tork's last and best MONKEES song. He expresses a long-held resentment. After a rebuff at the group's initial 1966 recording session (Peter was derided for bringing his guitar), his disenchantment with this TV show project was deep-seated and total. It's no surprise Tork was first to leave-- the first to break the circle. \n\nCD includes several alternate takes, a rehearsal track, and a radio ad for the movie. There's also a 12-page foldout liner note booklet, detailing film and songs. HEAD, the movie and the album, are minor classics that perfectly reflect both 1968 and a manufactured band on the verge of unravelling. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nI sing the praise of never change., October 26, 2005 \nBy Johnny Heering "trivia buff" (Bethel, CT United States)\nThis is the soundtrack to the Monkees' only feature film. It only has six songs, the rest of the soundtrack features sound collages assembled by Jack Nicholson, of all people. The songs are all great, it's some of the Monkees most mature work. The sound collages range from a few seconds long to five minutes long, and they are actually fairly interesting. The CD adds six great bonus tracks. On the alternate take of "Ditty Diego", you can hear Jack Nicholson instructing the boys to be "sillier". The alternate "Circle Sky" is the live version featured in the movie. There is a short recording of the other Monkees singing "Happy Birthday" to Mike. The alternate version of "Can You Dig It" features Peter on vocals instead of Micky. The alternate version of "Daddy's Song" features Mike on vocals instead of Davy. The CD closes with a radio advertisement for Head that is an incomprehensible sound collage which makes no mention of the Monkees, or even the fact that Head is a motion picture. With advertising like that, no wonder the movie flopped! \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nThe Monkees meet Zappa, May 11, 2004 \nBy Mark (Chicago, IL)\n\nThis album comes as a big shock to fans of the Monkees early pop hits who have no experience with avant garde rock of the late 60s. That jarring effect explains the commercial failure of the film and record in 1968. But those who get over the initial shock will be pleasantly surprised to find the Monkees' best album, one that ranks among the better creations of late-60s psychedelia. \nTo really understand this record, you need to first listen to Frank Zappa's late 60s masterpiece "Absolutely Free" (1967), because that is the template for this album. Absolutely Free like Head, featured a single track on each album side, linking the songs together with spoken interludes. Head is less ambitious than the Mothers' record, but adapts Zappa's format. Like those on Absolutely Free, Head's album sides featured a jarring mix of songs in different styles. It's no accident that Zappa himself has a cameo in the film. \n\nThis record is the Monkees trying a new direction, completely free of their manufactured roots in the aftermath of the spring 1968 cancellation of the TV series that was their genesis. While Head did not catch on commercially at the time, in retrospect the record holds up quite well. Porpoise Song is the real gem here, a beautiful song that floats across the room. That's followed up by the hard rocker "Circle Sky", a worthy contender for the best song here. The remainder of the original album's side one songs (Can You Dig It, As We Go Along) are all standout tracks as well. The CD's bonus track of note is a live version of Circle Sky that is every bit as good as the studio version. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nTheir True Masterpiece, August 8, 2003 \nBy Artie Fisk "artiefisk" (New Paltz, NY, USA)\n\nThis is, perhaps, the only time the Monkees managed to transcend themselves. They had done a fine job of being themselves and actually BECOMING the band they'd been pretending (albeit under duress) to be for some time on "Headquarters" and "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.," but "HEAD" remains both hopelessly of its time and completely timeless, ranking alongside such acknowledged classics as Love's "Forever Changes," simultaneously evoking the late 1960s and the modern, Post-"Pulp Fiction" style of soundtrack, combining dialogue and astounding, evocative music. \n\nDO NOT listen to those Monkees fans who tell you that this CD is "weird" or "an acquired taste." Listen instead to MUSIC FANS and FANS OF PSYCHEDELIA and KNOW that THIS IS WITHOUT A DOUBT THE FINEST ACHIEVEMENT OF THE MONKEES SHORT PERIOD OF VALIDITY. \n\nIn other words, this is the stuff, this is. \n\nOne listen to "Porpoise Song" or "Circle Sky" should be enough to convince you that this is REAL MUSIC. It puts all the rest of their LPs in its back pocket, with no disrespect intended to the very nice sounds they'd produced in 1967. These two tracks alone are ESSENTIAL DOCUMENTS IN AMERICAN PSYCHEDELIA, and merit much more in-depth discussion than is possible here. \n\nPeter Tork, for perhaps the only time in his career, finally DELIVERS on his unfulfilled potential with a fantastic pair of songs. "Can You Dig It?" is a middle-eastern slice of acoustic ballad psych with stomping, Kaliedoscope-style breakdowns, (think of Kaliedoscope's second LP, "A Beacon From Mars," but more focused) that manages to work even though Mickey sings it. \n\nTork then really lays it on us with the San Francisco Scene stylings of "Do I Have To Do This All Over Again?" In so doing he provides the film "HEAD" with its thematic center and he provides us with a FAR-FREAKIN'-OUT guitar jam that beats most of the lame Frisco types who were supposedly "heavy" at their own game (think of the always disappointing Quicksilver or Jefferson Airplane). \n\nWhat can I say? Even the Davy Jones tune on this record is swell: the Harry Nilsson penned "Daddy's Song," with its very Nilsson/Nesmith-esque 1920s arrangement and cryptic lyrics about a father who was "not a man, and it all was just a game." \n\nThis record is eclectic, with great songs and VERY interesting sonic tidbits. If you are a "Head," you will know why this is the Monkees best LP. It's been blowing my mind since the mid- 1980s, when I first heard an original pressing (pre-Rhino reissue) while in interesting circumstances. It blows my mind today under ANY circumstances. \n\nSo, the upshot of all this is: if you're one of those nerdy guys with a moustache and a Monkees T-shirt who wishes there was a Monkees-Fest just like the old Beatlefests, THIS AIN'T FOR YOU, PAL. But, if you're interested in REAL MUSIC without hangups, and pure, shining transcendence, then GET ON BOARD. \n\nAnd that's that. \n\n\n\nHalf.com Details \nContributing artists: Dewey Martin, Leon Russell, Neil Young, Ry Cooder \n\nAlbum Notes\nThe Monkees: Mickey Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork.\n\nAdditional personnel includes: Neil Young, Leon Russell, Ry Cooder, Dewey Martin, Russ Titelman.\n\nIn 1968, combating charges that they were a pre-fab Beatles knockoff with no real talent, the Monkees went the Liverpudlians one better by making HEAD, a wild, experimental film that made A HARD DAY'S NIGHT look like a drawing-room drama. The soundtrack has some freewheeling moments to match it, but more significantly, it contains some of the Monkees' best tunes from the period when the runaway train of their huge pop hits started losing speed. Seemingly influenced by the band's (particularly Mickey Dolenz's) love of Tim Buckley (who was a musical guest on the Monkees' TV show), "As We Go Along" is an incredibly moving slice of balladic folk-rock that could have fallen off of Buckley's seminal HAPPY SAD. The beloved "Porpoise Song (Theme from Head)" is a sun-drenched psychedelic gem that stands up to anything on SGT. PEPPER'S or PET SOUNDS. A batch of previously unreleased tunes appended to this reissue sweeten the pot some, but regardless, HEAD is a vitally important, often undervalued chapter in the Monkees' history.\n\nIndustry Reviews\n9 - Excellent Plus - ...an authentically important document of the time, alternating half a dozen intensely lovely songs (including Tork's mystical triumph 'Can You Dig It' plus Nesmith's rousing 'Circle Sky') with nonsense poetry and tripped out dialogue...\nNew Musical Express (02/18/1995)
This rock cd contains 14 tracks and runs 30min 2sec.
Freedb: 8b07080e
Buy: from Amazon.com

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