The majestic, oceanic swell of "The Porpoise Song," the Middle-Eastern hippy groove of "Can You Dig It?" and the poppy folk-psych of "As We Go Along" make this album one of the trippiest in the Monkees catalog.
Ignore the feeble studio mix of "Circle Sky.
" The live version included here as a bonus track kicks butt!
"Daddy's Song" sounds like typical Davy Jones treacle -- until you pay attention to the decidedly odd lyrics. Too bad they didn't use the a capella ending from the movie.
The soundtrack snippets surrounding the songs are good for a giggle, but get tiresome after several listenings.
This album is filled with sky and sun imagery. One is tempted to accuse the producers of some kind of artistry.
Their fight with Don Kirshner for control of their own destiny was over; their show failed to garner a third season renewal; and their 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee TV variety show bombed; fame is fleeting - in less than two years this made-for-TV band did the impossible, ascending the heights of the pop machine and rivaled even The Beatles in popularity, then fell from grace after guitarist Mike Nesmith and bassist/keyboardist Peter Tork came out that the band had been "faking" it on the records -- but that changed with Headquarters. Still, the damage was done and the group, already rife with four individual ego problems (particularly Nesmith), decided that the best thing to do was to give TV the finger and all the critics as well -- they managed to pull together as a unit, and with the help of a few friends (including Jack Nicholson!) they created their most ambitious project, the film HEAD.
The film was a critical disaster and their teenybopper fans hated it, but decades later the film -- and soundtrack album -- are considered the band's swansong to a degree, as it was truly a creative, artistic statement that did indeed rival anything anyone else was doing at the time in terms of quality, entertainment value and artistry. The film and the album have a very stream-of-consciousness feel and in-between bizarre vignettes of Mike and Micky taking bets on whether a girl will actually jump off a rooftop and plunge to her death and Frank Zappa walking around doling out critical analysis with a talking cow, you get snippets of self-mocking cleverness, such as Peter worrying about a scene where he has to hit a woman, and how it will effect his image as a peace-nik; Davy getting his "million dollar face" smashed and bloodied by boxer Sonny Liston; Mike's creepy horror at being left alone in their flat (the same one from the TV show) by the others (whom he thinks are playing a prank on him) and threatening outloud, "You think they call us plastic now baby, well wait till I tell em how we do it!" Then later on, his cynical response to a surprise party; and Micky's whacked-out desert battle with a Coke machine.
Then you get the most telling moment of all, when all the film's characters chase the band to a bridge, where they commit suicide.
As for the music - the only complaint I have is that there are only 6 songs here. It would have been cool if they could have padded out the rest of the album with some of the many outtakes found now on the three Missing Links collections.
Still, its interesting to hear scenes from the film cut and pasted in-between each track: the theme song, Porpoise Song, is haunting (the extended version with coda section is even moreso) and stands as one of the group's best ever (even finding its way into the film Vanilla Sky); Davy's Broadway rocker Daddy's Song actually works here, and was, interestingly enough, originally going to be a Mike song (heard as a bonus track); speaking of Mike, he turns in a great rocker Circle Sky. The live version from the film is here as well as a bonus track; and Peter, who was on the verge of quitting the band, turns in his best efforts with Do I Have To Do This All Over Again (featuring a blistering lead guitar) and Can You Dig It? (sung to great effect by Micky Dolenz); and Dolenz turns in a fine performance of the ballad As We Go Along.
All in all, if you can handle the brevity, this album is very much worth owning, as well as the film. This was the soundtrack album to the Monkees movie "Head". Unfortunately the Monkees popularity was dwindling, and both the movie and the album bombed.
I think it's a shame, because there is some of their best work on this album, and certainly their most psychedelic. The album is a collection of songs and sound bites from the movie. I will do a review of the songs:
"The Porpoise Song" - One of the Monkees most psychedelic songs, and definitely one of my favorites.
Everything about this song is great, and it really should have been a hit. I think perhaps this music was a little too advanced for the Monkees audience (which were mostly younger children) and that's why it didn't do so well. 10/10
"Circle Sky" - This version of "Circle Sky" is the studio version.
I'm not really sure why this was included over the live version from the movie, but it's certainly nowhere near as good. You can barely hear Mike's vocals, and it just sounds poorly produced. I usually program the live version from the bonus tracks in place of this.
5/10
"Can You Dig It" - This is one of the two songs written by Peter for this album. This version features Micky singing, and is yet another very psycedelic song. 9/10
"As We Go Along" - The flipside of "The Porpoise Song", and a very relaxing, enjoyable song.
Another underated song...
I seriously think that if some of this stuff had been released maybe a year earlier it would have been a lot more popular. 10/10
"Daddy's Song" - Has that older almost 20's feel to it. It's a pretty cool song, with a catchy beat.
Davy's vocals aren't the greatest though. 6/10
"Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again" - Peter's second offering for the album, and another great song. This one has some nice guitar work, and is once again very psychedelic.
10/10
Those are the only songs from the actual album, the rest are cool sound bites from the movie. There are some good bonus tracks on this cd..
.the best, in my opinion, being the live version of "Circle Sky", which is from the movie. There is also a version of Peter singing "Can You Dig It", and Mike singing "Daddy's Song".
All in all, a great offering by the Monkees, and I think it often gets overlooked as some of their best.
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