Monkees

Culture Vulture
Just watched Head, the Monkees feature film (scripted by Jack Nicholson and directed by Bob Rafelson) on cable last week. As a kid I enjoyed the Marx Bros/Three Stooges riffing on the extremly cartoonish show, had a batch of thier singles, and thought Peter Tork was the coolest. As an adult, very much dig the Boyce and Hart, Coffin/King, Neil Diamond stuff and can now ignore the first class session musicians who were a sin then, but hindsight tells us some of the same guys played all over Beach Boys, Turtles, and at least the first Bryds record.Saw Reg and the Troggs at Lupo's, they were unexpectedly valid- streamlined and raw."I Can't Control Myself" was and is a classic prop-punk tune. Saw a strange gig (in Newport maybe) that combinedthe raw talents of Eric Burdon and the MC5's Wayne Kramer, speaking of whom,was part of one of my undoubtedly top five gigs of all time-- Johnny Thunders/Wayner Kramer at the punk joint in Newport, one of the few post-Doll's times Johnny ever rose to the occassion (I saw him at least a1/2 dozen times in different mutations) and I can still remember a Tony Lioce PROJO review raving about the gig. Hey, can one of you internet heads locate that piece?