Mellotronists

Dolenz voice is totally cool. Did anyone know that Steven Stills was in
the running as a Monkee but they decided that his teeth weren't straight
enough?  That must have been the only criteria looking at who they
ultimately chose but it worked out better for all I think. I also agree
that the Monkees music was good and they made a significant contribution
to the 60's music scene even though the were assembled (By Don Kirshner
right?) and not a "real" group. But you're right, they had the good
writers.  What I never understood was why the recordings, sonically
speaking, sound like crap. There were so many great sounding recordings
being made at that time and with much smaller budgets I'm sure. I don't
think that they needed to bounce tracks that often, for most of their
recordings anyway, as the instrumentation was minimal but somehow they
managed to lose everything above 1 KHz and below 200 Hz.  A lot of it
sounds like its played through a megaphone and does not sound any better
heavily compressed and played though an AM radio which one might argue
was the reason for the mix.  Did any engineers dare attach their names
to any of these recordings? They are so consistently bad that I would
guess that they were done by the same engineer or studio or both. He/she
must have had a pillow duct taped around his head or something. 

Jim #912

-----Original Message-----
From: Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Don Tillman
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2006 10:30 AM
To: jonesalley
Cc: Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] sighting?

   > From: "jonesalley" <jonesalley@...>
   > Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 02:33:04 -0500
   > 
   > Hi, Don, thanks for the extra tidbits.  I have suddenly taken the
   > guys' music more seriously.

Yeah, Nesmith and Tork had folk music backgrounds before joining The
Monkees.  And I've always loved Dolenz's singing.  And behind the scenes
there were some great songwriters like Boyce, Hart and King and some
fine studio musicians like Glen Campbell.  The Monkees made some really
great music.

Dolenz went to the trouble of taking drum lessons during the filming of
the show, which I always thought was commendable.  He's been quoted as
saying, "Well, it's not like learning brain surgery."

I think the big problem was that they were specifically hired as actors
for a comedy show, not as musicians.  

  -- Don

--
Don Tillman
Palo Alto, California
don@...
http://www.till.com



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