Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart - No Monkee Business Here

"In the year 2076 radio and rock & roll will be around and some nostalgia freak with be munching on a kelp-burger and playing these songs as golden oldies." This was taken from the back of the album jacket, and they were only out by half a century. This was an album my buddy Andy had and I didn't get much more than a cursory shrug when I asked him if it was any good.

I should probably let you know that as a kid there was no band more important to me than The Monkees. Those early shows, particularly when the band performed made me want to play. I didn't want to wear a toque (or as it was known with Michael Nesmith, "Wool Hat") but I wanted to play guitar. Those big Gretsch's were beautiful. The fly in the ointment was Davey, even back then I could tell he was there for the little girls, and I found his songs to be mostly annoying.

Here we are in 1976 and the combination of Dolenz and Jones with the songwriting and production chops seemed like a good idea. To some this was a reunion of sorts, but even back then I'm guessing it was a bit of a hard sell to see the commercial potential in putting out an album by two former television actors who pretended to be musicians (I'm just being argumentative, but really that was the perception). Still someone must have bought into the idea, as this came out on Capitol, not some small label with limited resources.

I have to admit the first side more or less played through without really generating much of a reaction. The songs were sort of okay. Nothing special, but really not bad either. Opening the album with Davey singing didn't really help set the tone for me, but thankfully it was really his only lead vocal.

Things actually picked up with the second side, "Moonfire" which was the best song so far (the best song on the album), and then with "You Didn't Feel that Way Last Night (Don't You Remember)" opens with votrax, and early computer simulated voice. Apparently this was a first. The song itself is a facsimile of other earlier Boyce / Hart Monkee compositions. It's so familiar it's almost distracting. It's also a lot of fun. 

For an album that was trying to incorporate the future with aspects of technology the album just couldn't break free from the weight of the past. This was not breaking new ground, it was riding the last of the late '60s ripples. It didn't help the band thought it was a good idea to include the novelty song "Along Came Jones" that incorporated part of the "Yakety Sax" solo ... yeah, all I could think about was Benny Hill. The "Dolphin Joke of Day" was pretty funny, but seemed out of place. It's like the guys were trying to work in the more absurd elements of their old show before busting out a rock tune. The album closes with votrax thanking the listener on behalf of the band.

Speaking of technology, the album cover is now tacky and dated, but in 1976 when this came out, this was an example of cutting edge computer graphics. Of course to those of us who grew up in the '70s we were doing shit like this with our spirograph sets years before they took the time to have someone program a computer to do it. I guess not having the pinholes in the paper was worth the effort.

So after all this, how was it?

Shrug.