I grew up around a huge record collection – mostly my father’s – and always had open access to the music library once I was old enough to properly operate the turntable, cassette deck, and (eventually) the CD player. So, while most of my friends were either listening to bad ’80s hair metal and/or R & B, I was obsessed with ’50s and ’60s rock and roll – which is what made of the bulk of my dad’s collection.
Some of my earliest heroes were The Beatles, Sam Cooke, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens (the movie LaBamba hit me hard) and The Herman’s Hermits. But above all others were The Monkees – my absolute favorites from ages 6 – 10 (roughly), THE reason I wanted to become a musician in the first place. I took up the drums first because I worshiped Mickey Dolenz.
(Brief aside – as something of a modern-day Mike Nesmith obsessive, I’m almost embarrassed to admit it all really started with Mickey for me. Ah, well.)
So anyway, I suppose this all brings me to my first record. The first one that was really and truly mine, that I bought with what I considered to be “my own money” was The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees. My mom took me to go record shopping at Pop Tunes on Summer Ave. one day sometime after the recent acquisition of birthday money. And there it was: a Rhino re-issue (which I still have) of a Monkees record that my dad didn’t already have. I recognized the song “Valerie” (probably the best of Davy Jones’ lead vocal songs) from the Greatest Hits album, and plowed forth in good faith.
The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees is all over the place, and not nearly the best Monkees album – for that I suggest you check out Headquarters or Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. But it is a lot of fun and certainly exposed me to a lot of new, semi-psychedelic musical ideas and several great Nesmith tunes (“Tapioca Tundra,” “Writing Wrongs,” “Magnolia Simms”) that I grew to appreciate more later in life.
Viva los Monkees!
J.D. Reager is a Memphis-based musician, writer and empresario who has done time in a plethora of bands including Glossary and Two Way Radio. His new band, The Near Reaches, is currently working on a debut recording.
