A fun, trippy, surreal, eclectic, strange film romp with The Monkees, Part II (The plot of Head)

The first time I saw Head, on a VHS borrowed from my oldest, dearest friend (who’s also been a second-generation Monkeemaniac since the 1986 revival), I was very confused. For a long time, I’d heard about how bizarre, surreal, avant-garde, and plotless the film was, and now I had reason to agree with those views.

But when I revisited it years later, I found I really liked it and understood it a lot better. By that time, I had listened to the soundtrack album many times, so I was familiar with the story on some level. Unlike many other soundtracks, Head includes a lot of dialogue snippets, like a truncated version of the movie. Prior, the only song I knew was “The Porpoise Song.” I was inspired to finally check out the soundtrack on Spotify (never having found it in a record store) because my friend did a Zumba routine to “Can You Dig It?” for me. All these years later, she’s still just as big of a fan as I am!

Head is one of those films where you need to have no expectations or preconceptions. So many people across the last 55 years have disliked or misunderstood this film because it didn’t live up to what they were expecting. First things first, while there is a plot, it’s rather loose and freewheeling, not the traditional Point A to Point Z with a set beginning, middle, and end, inciting incident, dark moment, and dénouement.

Secondly, this isn’t an 86-minute episode of The Monkees. While it stars the same guys and features their music, Head is much different from the show by design. The Monkees are deliberately deconstructing their image, and the whole plot (as it were) is them trying desperately to get away from that image and live freely.

If you understand those things, and are familiar with the soundtrack, you’ll probably enjoy this film a whole lot more.

The real-life June 1968 dedication ceremony for the Gerald Desmond Bridge in Long Beach, California is marred by microphone malfunctions and The Monkees running through to the sound of sirens and horns. In their race to get away from their pursuers, they break through the ribbon for the cutting ceremony. Then Micky jumps into the water, which turns infrared, and mermaids try to revive him.

The next scene is in The Monkees’ groovy beach house, where they’re having a kissing contest with a woman who isn’t very impressed. She thinks they’re all the same. Then lots of mini TV screens start appearing, with various scenes of The Monkees from the film, ending with the infamous shooting of Nguyễn Văn Lém.

We shift to first a concert, then The Monkees leading the crowd in a cheer for war at a football field, then real film footage of the Vietnam War, and then The Monkees serving in the trenches themselves. While Peter is on the battlefield under fire, someone shoots his picture for the front cover of Life, and when he’s in another trench, a football player tackles him.

The boys go from venturing out onto the battlefield to going onstage, where they perform Mike’s song “Circle Sky” to screaming girls, interspersed with film footage of suffering Vietnamese civilians and the shooting of Nguyễn Văn Lém again. After the song, The Monkees make a getaway before their fans descend on the stage and rip apart mannequins of themselves. These crazed fans later appear on a TV flipping through channels.

One of those TV images is Micky staggering bare-chested through the desert, which comes into full-screen. He’s overjoyed to find a Coke machine, but when he sees it’s empty, he begins beating it. Later, a sheik comes through on horseback, followed by a tank. To Micky’s amazement, the tank driver and a huge unit of soldiers all drop their weapons and surrender to him, marching off into the desert. When they’re gone, Micky climbs into the tank and blasts the Coke machine.

Our next scene is Micky in sheik garb at a party with scantily-dressed belly dancers and the other Monkees, and then we’re transported to the Wild West with Micky and Mike. After walking off what turns out to be just a movie set, Mike and Micky walk onto another set where Davy is playing the violin.

While wandering around the set, the boys eventually push their way into a crowded diner. All the patrons leave when they see The Monkees, so they’re left alone with the odd-looking waitress. Peter also turns up in the diner.

We next see Davy boxing, then playing the violin again, then going back to the ring, where Mike and Micky are watching and very angry Davy refuses to lose on purpose, then Mike and Micky getting into the ring themselves and starting a huge brawl that brings cops out, and finally back to the diner, now filled with other patrons.

The story gets progressively stranger and stranger—Peter walking through snowy mountains, Micky in a forest of hanging moss trees, Davy in a garden, Mike on the beach; a montage of billboards; The Monkees touring a factory, being locked in a huge black box to do an ad for dandruff, and getting sucked into a vacuum cleaner; Davy getting separated from the other three in the vacuum and doing a song and dance routine; Davy seeing a huge eye inside a medicine cabinet; Davy stumbling into a horror movie set.

That’s pretty much the gist of the entire rest of the film, one random, wacky scene blending onto another, with lots of strange characters, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, as The Monkees keep having trouble with authority figures and trying desperately to escape their manufactured image. Towards the end, the scenes start appearing in reverse order until finally returning to the chase at the bridge. After all four Monkees jump this time, there’s an unexpected twist closing out the film.

The story might make no sense, but it does live up to the genre-blending promise in the movie poster. It’s also full of late Sixties psychedelic fun. If you love The Monkees and the 1960s, are familiar with unconventional films, and don’t expect a coherent plot, you’ll probably really enjoy Head.

A fun, trippy, surreal, eclectic, strange film romp with The Monkees, Part I (Behind the scenes of Head)

Today I complete another trip around the Sun. I am now the age Tyrone Power lived until, and a year younger than Freddie Mercury lived to.

Head, The Monkees’ one and only film (not counting TV specials), just like many other cult films, has always been one of those films you either love or hate. Even the August 1968 private screening in Los Angeles went over very poorly, compelling producers to edit it down from 110 minutes.

The 86-minute final product premièred in New York on 6 November 1968 and in Hollywood on 20 November, one of the very first films with an MPAA rating. It was rated G, though there’s definitely a lot of content that’s anything but G-rated and kid-friendly! I’d consider it more PG-13 by modern standards.

Ads for Head ran in New York City papers on 1 November 1968, with the G rating. There was also a promo campaign of putting up stickers in random places. Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson were arrested at the New York première for trying to put one of these stickers on a cop’s helmet as he got on his horse.

The original movie poster didn’t display The Monkees at all, but only PR man John Brockman. Trailers called it “the most extraordinary adventure, western, comedy, love story, mystery, drama, musical, documentary satire ever made (And that’s putting it mildly).”

Unfortunately, there wasn’t nearly enough promotion, particularly in light of how The Monkees’ TV show had been cancelled and they could no longer rely on that as an automatic selling point. The release was also delayed on account of the one and only commercial’s use of solarization, an expensive and time-consuming new technique which wholly or partly reverses the image on a negative.

The commercial was the above image, a closeup of John Brockman’s head. Thirty seconds in, he smiled, and HEAD appeared on his forehead. It was a parody of Andy Warhol’s 1964 silent film Blow Job. (Despite the title, there’s zero sexual content, but only a continuous closeup of a man’s face.)

Head flopped at the box office and got mixed critical reviews, for much the same reason as The Four Seasons’ brilliant, criminally underrated 1969 album Genuine Imitation Life Gazette tanked. Their established fans didn’t know what to do with something so radically different, while the new, more sophisticated audience they were trying to appeal to already thought they were uncool and not worth listening to.

The late Sixties also saw a huge tanking in popularity of acts who’d been around for a long time. Public tastes were drastically changing, and anyone associated with the old days of as recently as just a few short years ago were automatically branded uncool by default, even when they made a strong effort to evolve with the changing musical landscape.

The critical and commercial failure of Head accelerated the sharp drop in The Monkees’ popularity, though the soundtrack album got a lot more glowing reviews than the film itself and charted at #24 in Canada, #45 in the U.S., and #53 in Japan.

During the ensuing 55 years, Head has developed a cult following, and has been shown at several film festivals. In 2012, Mike described it as a deliberate swan song, crafted when he and the other three guys knew The Monkees were naturally winding down and had lost so much popularity so quickly.

However, a decade earlier, Mike called Head intentional career murder orchestrated by Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, who wanted to wash their hands of The Monkees and move on to new projects. Peter also expressed similar sentiments, and Davy thought it never should’ve been made.

Head was released on VHS and laserdisc in 1986 as part of The Monkees’ 20th anniversary and huge second wave of popularity (the year I became a fan). A new VHS and DVD edition came in 1995, and in 2010, Criterion issued it on DVD and Blu-ray as part of a boxed set with other Bob Rafelson films. Then, in 2016, for The  Monkees’ 50th anniversary, Rhino included it on a boxed set with the complete TV series. Deleted scenes were also on the Head disc.

A trippy soundtrack to a very strange film

Image used solely to illustrate the subject for the purposes of an album review, and consistent with Fair Use Doctrine

Head, the trippy soundtrack to The Monkees’ very odd 1968 film of the same name, was released 1 December 1968. Though I very much enjoy it, this isn’t an album I’d recommend to a new fan just starting out. The ideal first Monkees’ albums are Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones Ltd. and Headquarters, as far as I’m concerned.

But if you love The Monkees and the late Sixties psychedelic sound, you’ll probably also really like this album. You don’t even need to be familiar with the film Head to enjoy it, though that does add an extra level of understanding and appreciation. And if you’ve only seen the film, listening to the soundtrack not only might improve your second viewing experience, but also enhance all future listening experiences with the album. It sure did for me!

The Head soundtrack was coordinated with help from co-screenwriter Jack Nicholson, who also included many dialogue excerpts from the film. Thus, it doesn’t feel like a detached soundtrack that just happens to have every tune from the film, but almost like you’re listening to the film without the images.

Many critics of 1968 and 1969 highly praised the album for its avant-garde, adventurous, eclectic, creative, trippy musical landscape, proving The Monkees became a real band and so much more than their initial prefabricated, bubblegum image. In 2013, Rolling Stone ranked it at #25 on their list of “The 25 Greatest Soundtracks of All Time.”

Though The Monkees’ TV show had been cancelled and their greatest wave of popularity was over, the Head soundtrack nevertheless charted at the very respectable position of #24 in Canada, #45 in the U.S., and #53 in Japan.

In 1994, Head was remastered and released on CD with six bonus tracks. In 2010, it came out in a deluxe 3-CD boxed set.

Track listing, with stars by the bonus tracks:

“Opening Ceremony” (spoken words by Micky, Charles Irving, June Fairchild, Teri Garr, I.J. Jefferson, Ray Nitschke, and unknown; includes dialogue from “The Porpoise Song,” “As We Go Along,” “Daddy’s Song,” and the live version of “Circle Sky”)
“The Porpoise Song” (Theme from Head) (written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King) (#62 in the U.S.)
“Ditty Diego” (written by Jack Nicholson and Bob Rafelson)
“Circle Sky” (written by Mike)
“Supplicio” (spoken words)
“Can You Dig It?” (written by Peter)
“Gravy” (spoken words by Davy and I.J. Jefferson)
“Superstitious” (dialogue from the 1934 film The Black Cat, by Béla Lugosi and David Manners)
“As We Go Along” (written by Carole King and Toni Stern)
“Dandruff?” (spoken words by The Monkees, Charles Macaulay, Logan Ramsey, Film Officer, and Film Director, plus “Superstitious”)
“Daddy’s Song” (written by Harry Nilsson)
“Poll” (spoken words by Davy, Peter, Mike, Frank Zappa, Timothy Carey, Man 1, Man 2, and Man 3)
“Long Title: Do I Have to Do This All Over Again?” (written by Peter)
“Swami—Plus Strings, Etc.” (written by Ken Thorne) (vocals by Micky, Abraham Sofaer, June Fairchild, Teri Garr, I.J. Jefferson, Timothy Carey, Ray Nitschke, and unknown; includes dialogue from “The Porpoise Song,” “As We Go Along,” “Daddy’s Song,” and the live version of “Circle Sky”)
“Ditty Diego—War Chant” (first version)*
“Circle Sky” (live version)*
“Happy Birthday to You”*
“Can You Dig It?” (early mix)*
“Daddy’s Song” (early mix; sung by Mike instead of Davy)*
Head radio spot* (with dialogue from “Opening Ceremony,” “The Porpoise Song,” “Can You Dig It?,” “As We Go Along,” “Daddy’s Song,” “Long Title,” and the live “Circle Sky”)

My favourite tracks are “The Porpoise Song,” “Can You Dig It?,” and “As We Go Along.”

With The Beatles at 60, Part II (Behind the scenes, release, reception)

Thanks to the success of Please Please Me, The Beatles were able to record the songs for their sophomore album in seven different sessions from 18 July–23 October 1963. They also didn’t need to finish every single song or get the take perfect on the same day, and could leave them to come back to later. With The Beatles was not an album that had to be entirely recorded in one marathon day!

However, their second album is similar to their first in that they both feature six covers to eight original compositions. Though they were obviously more than capable of writing their own songs, they hadn’t yet weaned themselves off of doing covers. There was also a contractual obligation to put out more than one album a year at this time, so it may have made more practical sense to include some covers instead of trying to come up with fourteen good new songs in such a relatively short time.

Additionally, most bands in 1963 rarely wrote 100% of their songs anyway. Only as the decade wore on did writing all of one’s own material become the standard expectation.

The Beatles hated this Australian album cover!

Though the album tracks were recorded in seven sessions, there were truly eight in total. One of those sessions, on 17 October, produced “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and its B-side “This Boy,” neither of which were issued on any U.K. albums. Also on 17 October, the band recorded their speeches for a fan club’s Christmas record.

That session and the final one on 23 October took advantage of the new four-track recording technology EMI had just installed. Afterwards, George Martin began mixing the mono and stereo versions. Officially, With The Beatles was completed on 30 October.

The famous, much-imitated album cover was photographed by Robert Freeman, who did a total of four covers for The Beatles. Manager Brian Epstein asked him to do the artwork because he was impressed with Mr. Freeman’s black and white photos of John Coltrane. The band asked him to do it in the style of their friend Astrid Kirchherr’s 1960–62 photos of them in Hamburg, in half-shadow and unsmiling.

The photo was taken 22 August 1963 in a dark corridor of the Palace Court Hotel in Bournemouth, a coastal resort town they were currently playing. Mr. Freeman put Ringo at the bottom right to fit the image in a square, and because he was also the shortest and the last one to join the band. The photography session only took an hour.

German edition

It wasn’t common practice at the time for an album cover to fill the entire space, nor to leave off the artist’s name and title. EMI also didn’t like that The Beatles weren’t smiling. The image was only approved after George Martin, head of Parlophone in addition to their producer, advocated on their behalf. However, the band’s name and the album title had to be added to a white bar on top.

Mr. Freeman earned £75 (£1,309.08 and $1,644.76 in 2023), thrice the original fee EMI offered.

Because the Australian EMI branch didn’t get the cover art, they decided to issue the album with their own image in a similar style. The Beatles had no idea what it looked like until fans showed it to them during their 1964 tour of the country. They let EMI know just how unhappy they were with it!

There were advance orders of half a million in the U.K., and it quickly rose to the top of the chart upon its 22 November 1963 release. In so doing, it dethroned Please Please Me from the #1 spot. It stayed there for 21 weeks, giving the band a total of 51 consecutive weeks on top of the album chart. By September 1965, it had sold another half-million copies, making it only the second album to sell a million units in the U.K. (the first being the 1958 South Pacific soundtrack).

This was the first Beatles’ album released in North America, on 25 November 1963 in Canada, under the title Beatlemania! With The Beatles. In 1964, the fourteen songs were split up among the Capitol repackagings Meet The Beatles (nine tracks) and The Beatles’ Second Album (five tracks).

The album also hit #1 in Germany, and reached #5 in Finland. Upon its CD release in 1987, it hit #25 in The Netherlands. The 2009 remastering and rerelease went to #31 in Finland, #34 in Sweden, #70 in Spain, #73 in Switzerland, #83 in the Flemish Region of Belgium, and #88 in the Walloon Region of Belgium.

Over the ensuing decades, With The Beatles has appeared on many of those incessant best-of lists in music magazines, books, and polls.

With The Beatles at 60, Part I (General overview)

Happy heavenly 105th birthday to Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn!

Image used solely to illustrate subject for the purposes of an album review, and consistent with Fair Use Doctrine

With The Beatles, the band’s sophomore album, was released 22 November 1963 (the day JFK was assassinated) in the U.K. Later on, the fourteen tracks would be released in the U.S. on the repackaged Capitol albums Meet The Beatles and The Beatles’ Second Album. Canada released it as Beatlemania! With The Beatles.

I’ve never made any secret of the fact that my favourite Beatles’ era is their middle period, from Rubber Soul to Magical Mystery Tour, and that their late period (The White Album till the end) is my next-fave. That’s not any kind of bash against their early period, but it just doesn’t speak to me nearly as personally as the other two, or even their transitional album Help!

It’s very telling that my favourite album from their early period is A Hard Day’s Night, which shows a band past their earliest growing pains of finding their own unique musical voice and relying mostly on covers. AHDN is also very close to their transitional and middle period, so it naturally speaks to me more personally than their other early work.

However, that’s not to say I dislike their first two albums at all. Both Please Please Me and With The Beatles are full of charm, sweetness, and appeal, even if I don’t feel the urge to listen to them very often. It’s also always fun to look back at a band’s genesis and compare their music then to what they later accomplished. Additionally, sometimes one just wants to listen to something that’s not so serious and heavy.

Australian cover

Track listing:

“It Won’t Be Long”
“All I’ve Got to Do”
“All My Loving” (#1 in Canada, Sweden, Australia, and Finland; #2 in Norway and The Netherlands; #3 in Denmark; #6 in New Zealand; #16 in Belgium; #31 on U.S. Cash Box and #45 on Billboard; #32 in West Germany)
“Don’t Bother Me” (the very first song George wrote which appeared on an album)
“Little Child”
“Till There Was You” (written by Meredith Willson in 1950; first recorded by Eileen Wilson [no relation] as “Till I Met You,” then revised as “Till There Was You” by Nelson Riddle, his orchestra, and vocalist Sue Raney in 1957; ultimately made popular by the 1957 musical and 1962 film The Music Man)
“Please Mister Postman” (written by Georgia Dobbins, William Garrett, Freddie Gorman, Brian Holland, and Robert Bateman for The Marvelettes in 1961) (#1 in Australia and Denmark; #2 in Canada; #11 in Sweden; #30 on U.S. Cash Box and #68 on Billboard)
“Roll Over Beethoven” (written by Chuck Berry in 1956)
“Hold Me Tight”
“You Really Got a Hold on Me” (written by Smokey Robinson in 1962)
“I Wanna Be Your Man” (Ringo’s song)
“Devil in Her Heart” (written by Richard Drapkin [as Ricky Dee] for The Donays in 1961; George’s second lead vocal on the album)
“Not a Second Time”
“Money (That’s What I Want)” (written by Janie Bradford and Berry Gordy for Barrett Strong in 1959)

My favourite tracks are “Don’t Bother Me,” “It Won’t Be Long,” “Till There Was You” (never understood the hate this song gets!), “Devil in Her Heart,” and “Not a Second Time.”