My Yard Sales Finds from June 2023!

Hey everybody, I made a video! It's like I'm in the 21st century or something!

It's all about the stuff I bought at a neighborhood yard sale. Enjoy!

The Monkees, "Some Like It Lukewarm," Tribute to Jerry Blavat

 

Today I offer a quick tribute to a beloved Philadelphia icon who passed away last week, with a longer one hopefully to follow soon.

Friday January 20th saw the passing of Jerry Blavat, a longtime radio DJ and nightclub owner here in Philly. Blavat started as a dancer on the original Bandstand show, hosted first by Bob Horn and then Dick Clark. Blavat moved on to being a radio DJ and made connections with many celebritites such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, and worked for Don Rickles.

Blavat became well known enough in show business circles in the '60s to earn a guest appearance in an episode of The Monkees, titled "Some Like It Lukewarm." Here is that episode.

Enjoy! I hope to have more on Blavat soon.

Michael Nesmith, 1942-2021

Man. This sucks.

I've mentioned several times before my deep love for the Monkees, but I don't know if I've mentioned that I've always found Michael Nesmith the most talented members of the band (no disrespect to the other members at all). His songwriting was excellent, and he was just so funny too. I watched his Television Parts series on NBC as a kid and highly enjoyed it, without knowing he was a Monkee. He could pretty much do it all.

And now we've lost him.

When I heard of his death, I was surprised but also not surprised. I followed Nesmith on social media, and he didn't look well, even for his age. Plus he had to postpone a previous tour a couple years ago due to health issues, so I've suspected for awhile that he was not in the best of health. Still, I was sad to hear of his passing, and I couldn't let his death go unnoted here.

Here is a clip from The Monkees in which he espouses the love for music and for life that guides musicians, including his bandmate Peter Tork.

Here are just a few of my many favorite Nesmith-penned tunes.

While we're in the Christmas season, please see my previous post from several years ago featuring the one and only Christmas episode of The Monkees here.

Rest in peace, Mike. Share a drink with Davey and Peter for us.

Peter Tork, 1942--2019

It's always sad to note the passing of a musician/actor/artist you've admired all your life, and this is no different.

I've been a Monkees fan since I saw reruns of the series on UHF TV as a very young child, and my love for them was solidified when they reunited in 1986. I was fortunate to attend their tour date at Veterans Stadium here in Philadelphia, and my friends and I were inspired to dive deep into their albums that were reissued at that time. We were forever hooked. And it was clear to me even then that Peter Tork, despite being the quiet "dummy" of the band, was the most talented musician.

My respect for him grew as I matured, and I was blown away by his talent back in 2011 when I saw the band on tour again. I'm glad I got to see him again one more time. Now that he is gone, I will hold those memories even closer than before.

Here is a small sample of his best work, both as a singer and songwriter. Rest in peace, Peter.

Goffin/King Demos of Monkees Songs

This past weekend, my daughter and I enjoyed seeing the touring version of the Broadway musical Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. One of the many great songs co-written by King featured in the show is "Pleasant Valley Sunday," made famous by the Monkees. However, although that's the biggest hit written by the duo to be performed by the band, the Monkees recorded several other great songs by Gerry Goffin and King. Here are a few examples, with demos recorded by King featured first, followed by the Monkees' final version.

From the band's debut album, here is "Take a Giant Step." First is a country/western style demo by King, followed by a psychedelic folk fusion by the Monkees.

Next is "Sometime in the Morning," featured on the band's sophomore album More of the Monkees. Due to the swiftness in which the album was released and the impressiveness of King's demo, producers simply added Mickey Dolenz's vocal over King's recording.




Finally, a departure from the usual Goffin/King style, the heavily psychedelic ode "The Porpoise Song," written and recorded for the Monkees' movie Head. I love the Latin phrase King throws on at the beginning and end of her demo.




This isn't the first time I shared a Goffin/King demo of a Monkees song. You can check out King's demo for Pleasant Valley Sunday here.

Demos like this help music fans really appreciate the evolution of a song from first writing to final production. The twists and turns a song takes during this process is fascinating to me. I hope it is for you too.

Thanks!

List O' Links for Friday, May 27, 2016

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! I hope you have a safe and happy one. Start the Summer of 2016 right with these fun links!

The Discovery Channel kicks off Shark Week earlier than ever this year, starting Sunday, June 26th through Sunday, July 3rd. Here's the lineup!

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Gen-X movie classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The city of Chicago celebrated in style by recreating the most famous scenes from the movie in real life. Sweet!

Many viewers, including me, are mourning the death of yet another beloved character from the HBO hit series Game of Thrones this week. But what exactly caused this to happen? A theoretical physicist makes the case for how this tragedy was sealed years beforehand.

How does your current mobile phone plan stack up to CellularOne's plan from back in the late 80s? Crunch the numbers and find out!

Your favorite band and mine, The Monkees, release their latest album today! Check it out!

Finally, Golden Girls pins. They're a thing.

Have a great holiday weekend! Remember those who sacrificed their lives for our country.

January's Underappreciated Music: The Monkees Featuring Neil Young, "You and I"

Great minds think alike. Recently, my good friends Todd Mason and Peter Carley both separately sent a link to me from the Web site Dangerous Minds describing the little known times that Neil Young contributed to recordings of the Monkees (an article you can read here). The full song that the article uses as an example of this pairing was the song "You and I," written by Davy Jones and Bill Chadwick, with vocals by Jones, from the band's album Instant Replay (the first album released after Peter Tork departed from the band).

The song is a more mature and harder-sounding song that is usual for Jones, which is to the singer's benefit. The teen idol trappings of the majority of his earlier songs with the band are absent here, and the song really lets Jones' vocal talent shine, as well as his growing sophistication as a songwriter. Young basically does his thing on guitar, and the pairing of him with the band is a fine one (and this is coming from someone who is not a particular fan of Young).

Here is the song in all its glory. Enjoy!

The Monkees, "Hitting the High Seas"

Avast, ye hearties! Today 'tis Talk Like A Pirate Day, and we celebrate this day with a look at the one of the most famous and beloved episodes of The Monkees, "Hitting the High Seas." The boys are hired to work on what they think is a simple cargo ship, but instead turns out to be a modern-day pirate ship trying to rob the Queen Anne cruise ship!

That's a lot of uses of the word "ship!"

Enjoy, landlubbers!

Tuesday's Overlooked TV: Michael Nesmith in Elephant Parts

Hi everybody! If there's a bookshelf in the background of my blog, it means that Labor Day has passed and summer is unofficially over. For me, between the soggy, rainy weather, my daughter's broken arm in the month of July, and a lot of running around during August, summer was pretty much a bust for my household. But no use in complaining. The best thing to do is welcome autumn with open arms and appreciate its splendor. Cool weather, changing color of the leaves, and a certain countdown in the month of October ;)

But first things first. We have this week's Tuesday's Overlooked TV: the 1981 TV special Elephant Parts, created by and starring former Monkee Michael Nesmith.

Elephant Parts is a bit hard to describe, but it's basically an hour of weird comedy sketches, some a parody of Nesmith's previous post-Monkees projects, accompanied by five music videos of Nesmith songs (my favorite being "Rio"). While not exactly groundbreaking, it is amusing, and it definitely shows Nesmith's influence on the creation of visual-dependent media such as MTV. See for yourself below and enjoy the entire hour.

I hope you had a great summer; here's to a wonderful fall!

List O' Links for Friday, June 7th, 2013

Hello there 99 percenters! It's time to chillax and relax with some fun linky-links!

If you're a fan of Star Wars, pulp novels, or both, you'll dig these pulp-style book covers!

I'm sure you knew this already, but if you didn't, here is indisputable proof that the Monkees were talented.

In other music tidbits, Billy Joel reveals to the New York Times he used to drink too much, but now only drinks a little bit, and other information.

I haven't seen Game of Thrones's Red Wedding episode yet (NO SPOILERS!!), but if the characters were around in the 1990s, they'd probably look like this.

Mermaids aren't real. That's it. Discussion over. So shut up!

Finally, an article on one of the most notorious comic books ever published--Avengers #200.

Have a great weekend!

List O' Links for Friday, April 12th, 2013

It's raining here in Philadelphia, but it's always sunny in the Internet! Enjoy the cyber-sunshine with these fun and informative links!

Michael Nesmith is currently on a small US solo tour and will be stopping here in Philly this upcoming Tuesday for a sold out show at the World Cafe Live. Here he talks to Rolling Stone about the tour and his reputation as being the "difficult" Monkee.

An alien code may be hidden in our DNA. That would explain a lot.

This is a question I've wanted an answer to for awhile now, as I don't understand the ridiculous hate pelted at  an actress I like quite a bit. What is Anne Hathaway doing wrong?

Here are a couple of cool images of a vinyl record magnified 1000 x.

Today is National Grilled Cheese Day, and April is Grilled Cheese Month. Nobody loves a good grilled cheese sandwich more than I do--and I make an awesome one, if I do say so myself--but I think this version is a bit too excessive.

Finally, DC Comics makes a bit of history this week. Batgirl #19, out in retail outlets this week, discloses that a character introduced back in issue #1 of the series, Barbara Gordon's artist roommate Alysia Yeoh, is transgender. She is the first non-superhuman character in a mainstream superhero comic to be revealed as such.

Have a great weekend!

Random Images of Awesomeness Part II

I come across a lot of cool images in my Internet travels, so as I've done once before, here is an entire post showcasing them. I won't comment on most of them, except where some explanation may be in order. Enjoy!

 Cosplay of the character Flame Princess from Adventure Time.

Baby Princess Leia. Awwww.

Thanks!

List O' Links for Friday, March 1, 2013

Welcome to the month that comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Spring is a mere three weeks away. Melt away the last vestiges of winter with these hot links! They're Lemongrab approved!

It's been exactly one year since we lost Davy Jones of the Monkees. Here, on the eve of northern New Jersey's Monkees Convention, Al Bibgy remembers the short-statured but big-hearted Monkee.

Also from Al Bigby, an article from a 2005 issue of Video Watchdog magazine reviews the DVD box set of the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon series.

Megan Fox has been cast as April O'Neil in Michael Bay's forthcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, a move that has several fans scratching their heads. Here are 8 other actresses who may be better suited for the role (I like the Emma Watson suggestion myself).

Here is some awesome fan art of Destro and the Baroness from the G.I. Joe franchise. Great work!

Finally, does it seem incompetence is taking over every aspect of our lives? It may very well be, at least judging by the goof-ups and gross mistakes showcased in the great Web site You Had One Job.

Have a great weekend!

Monkees Screen Tests

One more Monkees post this week won't hurt. Here are the boys taking their screen tests before they were cast. The Mike Nesmith and Davy Jones tests are featured on an episode of the series, but I've never seen Mickey Dolenz and Peter Tork's screen tests before. Enjoy!

Monkees Demos Performed by The Original Songwriters

Continuing the Monkees theme a bit, here are a couple of demos for the band recorded by the original songwriters.

Carole King performs "Pleasant Valley Sunday." It's great to hear her take on this classic Monkees song (which, of course, is really her song).

I have a great version of her singing "The Porpoise Song," which she also wrote, but the audio quality isn't the best. I'll try to get that uploaded in a future post.

Here, Harry Nilsson demos "Cuddly Toy;" the Monkees would record this song for their Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones Ltd. LP. Nilsson would become a close friend of Micky Dolenz.



This last song isn't a demo, but it is an interesting listen nonetheless. This is Neil Diamond's version of "I'm A Believer," which he wrote (as well as "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" and "Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow"). I don't know whether he or the Monkees released it first, but they both, along with modern band Smash Mouth, have embedded the song in pop culture consciousness.



Thanks!

Tuesday's Forgotten TV: The Monkees on The Hy Lit Show, 1968

The Monkees are about to start a nationwide tour this month (minus Davy Jones, of course), so in preparation for the occasion, here is one of a few Monkees posts to appear this month, starting with a Tuesday's Forgotten TV moment.

Here, the boys appear on the syndicated Hy Lit Show to promote their movie Head. Hy Lit was a legendary radio DJ here in Philadelphia, who briefly had a weekday TV series that appeared mostly on the Kaiser/Field stations such as WKBS-TV Channel 48 in Philadelphia and Kaiser flagshipWFLD-TV Channel 38 in Chicago.

The boys are their usual silly selfs, joking around with Lit as well as fellow radio DJ Long John Wade. Enjoy Peter Tork's beard!

Tuesday's Forgotten Film: Head

The Monkees have been mentioned many times here at the blog, including Tuesday's Forgotten, but that's to be expected when I'm such a huge fan. For Tuesday's Forgotten Film this week, I'm happy to present the band's lone theatrical film Head.

There is no real plot to the film, just the theme of the boys fighting to break out of their "pre-fab" image to showcase their true selves and artistic interests through myriad adventures and light psychedelia (which they would also do the following year on their TV special). It's certainly a far cry from the TV series, which of course is the point.

Here is the film in all its glory. Enjoy!

List O' Links for 5/11/2012

Before you begin your weekend festivities, take a look at the Internet offerings I have for you this week!

An incredibly awesome Pac-Man fan film. 'Nuff said!

This author writes a good overview of the career of Michael Nesmith both pre- and post-Monkees. I considered featuring Nesmith's Elephant Parts as a Tuesday's Forgotten TV selection, but this author does just as good a job as I could have done describing it, so here 'tis.

This New York Times article explains the bitter dispute between the co-CEOs of Archie Comics for control of the company. Unfortunate, especially since the comics have been experiencing a creative hot streak the last couple of years.

Scottish artist Paul Cadden is such an amazing artist, his work looks like actual photographs rather than drawings!

Finally, what do you get when you cross late comedian Dick Shawn, two Second City alums, and Rowlf the Dog of the Muppets? This.

Have a great weekend!

Tuesday's Forgotten TV: The New Monkees

The untimely passing of Davy Jones this past winter has stirred up further interest in The Monkees, which is something I'm always happy to see, being a huge fan of the group. What many people may not know, however, is that the idea was resurrected shortly after the group's first reunion tour in 1986. The project became The New Monkees, and it's this week's Tuesday's Forgotten TV.

Columbia Television decided to give the Monkees concept a second shot in the wake of the surprisingly successful 1986 reunion of the original members. Four new musicians were selected for a record album and TV series, again with top-notch music producers of the day, but this time with a sound and look that was very very 80s.

That is definitely 80s hair.

Unlike in the 60s TV series, in which the Monkees were portrayed as struggling musicians, the new batch of Monkees lived in a gigantic mansion with crazy technology and an almost magical quality about it (think the Overlook Hotel without the evil). The house was inhabited by the boys' sneering, disapproving butler, a friendly waitress in the mansion's diner--not a kitchen, a diner--and a feminine artificial intelligence that appeared on large TV screens as Rocky Horror-style disembodied lips.

Suffice it to say, this was a large departure from the original series.

It was also a large departure from the original series' success. Although slated for an entire 22-episode run, the show last only 13 episodes in first-run syndication. The accompanying album also went nowhere. It also didn't help that the original members sued Columbia over the Monkees name; the case was settled out of court.

Below is a presentation to potential affiliates to sell the show.



The show's theme song.



One of the band's songs on both the series and their album.



Finally, the band actually had a reunion of sorts as recently as 2007 which was recorded and posted on YouTube. Here they perform a classic made famous by the original Monkees.



Thanks!

Davy Jones, 1945-2012

I didn't think I'd be writing this any time soon. I was out having lunch with my boss and coworkers this afternoon and came back to hear the news. I was totally blown away.

I can't emphasize enough how much the Monkees have had an effect on me. I loved watching reruns of the show on UHF TV in the early 80s, as did my childhood friends. When they went on their first 20th reunion tour in 1986, I saw them peform at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia; it was my first ever music concert. At the same time, my friends and I began collecting their old albums that were being reissued in light of the highly successful tour. It was from then on we began to listen to the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and other classic rock acts, and from then on we really began to determine our musical tastes, as I imagine most of us do. Yet at the very start, the Monkees were our gateway drug to all that.

At the time, we didn't dig on Davy too much, as his stuff was geared to the teenage girls, which we clearly weren't.  But as I grew up, I began to realize Davy for the talented performer he was. I also saw that he was as funny on the show as any of the others.

Davy was to appear at the Philadelphia Comic Con this upcoming June, and I was looking forward to seeing him there. Man, have I missed out.

Rest in peace, Davy.