Various Artists: Monkeys A Go Go (Wyncote)

Last November here in Fufkin I wrote up a review of Monkey Business, the first of two 1967 albums released on Wyncote Records modeled after The Monkees. The review ended with a promise that I would sometime down the line do a similar take on the follow-up album, Monkeys A Go Go, released in the Spring of 1967 while Monkee fever was still running rampant in the United States.

Monkeys A Go Go begins with the two Monkees covers of the set, specifically, both sides of the current single. First comes "A Little Bit Me A Little Bit You." It sounds a wee bit faster than The Monkees' own version, and a little stronger. Vocally it sounds like karaoke night, but the singer's voice resembles Micky's more than it does Davy, making it almost sound like an early version tested on a different Monkee.

Naturally, next comes "The Girl I Knew Somewhere." Like the previous track, the tempo sounds a little rushed, but musically the musicians capture the same basic sounds The Monkees put down themselves (minus the acoustic guitar, and with a real piano in place of Peter's harpsichord.). The singer seems a little unsure about the lyrics of the last chorus.

The album takes quite an interesting turn with the next track, the first original song of the collection, "The Chimps' Theme." Any Monkees fan would be forgiven for making a guess ahead of time that the track would be a parody of "(Theme From) The Monkees"...perhaps something in the same tempo, just as rocking, with a catchy chorus, right? Wrong. While yes, it does have a catchy chorus, similarities between the two songs start and end with the title. Instead, "The Chimps' Theme" sounds
far more akin to the not-even-released-yet "Randy Scouse Git," as both have (impressive) old-timey piano sound to a woodblock beat (This would be a good time to mention that because of this album's frequent use of a backing section of piano, bright twangy guitar, drums, bass and tambourine, just like The Monkees' Headquarters, several songs remarkably achieve a dead ringer Headquarters sound, making me wonder if Monkeys A Go Go had actually come out after that album, but as no songtitles mimic Headquarters titles, I rule it out). And instead of being a rocking declaration like "(Theme From) The Monkees," "The Chimps' Theme" has a far more pensive melody with lyrics, in the year before Head, drawing parallels between the lives of celebrities and that of caged animals.

Another drastic turn follows in "Fifth Class Mail." At 4:25 it clocks in as the longest song of the album, even though the "song" portion only lasts the first 45 seconds. It's at that point that the organ-soaked waltz with an eerie melody beneath lyrics about an out-of-work starlet turns into a one chord psychedelic instrumental, with heartbeats, organ solos, fuzzy stinging guitar solos, sleigh bells, castanets, and whatever percussion instruments were lying around, and much psychotic laughing (some of which sounds uncannily like Micky Dolenz) and freaking out... far more psychedelic than anything The Monkees themselves had released by this time. The track ends with the music abruptly stopping, and the sound of a speed-up tape of saying some first name...which on close listen (or slow speed) reveals itself to be a mock on The Mickey Mouse Club roll call...ending with a very low, echoed voice intoning..."Roy!"

Out of the mushroom patch, the album next gets (blue eyed) soulful with "Yes You May," which could have been a nice Young Rascals record. A straightforward fun song, it sandwiches that group's "Lonely Too Long" with "Ain't Too Proud To Beg." It's the happiest song of the album thus far.

Onto Side Two, "Just Keep Dancing" just keeps things in the straight ahead rock and roll bag with this fast paced Jerry Lee Lewis type song, the piano once again dominating. Its similarities to its Monkees' namesake, "Let's Dance On," are slight, but they're there.

"Your Uncle Grizzly" comes next, which except for both following the traditional 12-bar chord progression (sort of) has absolutely nothing in common with "Your Auntie Grizelda." Instead, it's a fun Mike-alike Chet Atkins/rockabilly song, as if a jam which took place right after recording "Papa Gene's Blues."

"The Week We Fell In Love" thankfully isn't another whispery schmaltzy thing like the much despised track on the second Monkees' album that inspired this song's title. Musically, "Sometime In The Morning" seems to have been the blueprint for this pretty good song...sung, not whispered.

"Believe My Cry" sounds like no particular Monkees song of the time, though one can easily imagine an acoustic version of "Love Is Only Sleeping" sounding like this. It's a gentle, Donovan-like acoustic song with only a tambourine, not a drumset, providing the beat for the bass and mostly subdued electric guitar that give the folky song the tiniest hint of psychedelia. Some breathy harmonized vocals fall in there and there, and a false ending soon gives way to the real one.

The album closes on a garage note with "When She Knocks At The Door." If The Monkees had added an organ to their "No Time," it might have sounded like this. What's interesting about the vocalist is that it's someone who we didn't hear on any other cut on this album or the previous one (at least not in this voice). Instead of sounding like a Monkee, the singer sounds like Mark Lindsay's "Steppin' Out" voice.

By the later part of 1967, Monkee fever was showing slight signs of abatement. Though their records were still charting high, the initial craze had run its course, and consequently, the fine folks at Wyncote never released any more Monkee parody discs. But provided you can find one, copies of those two 1967 albums prove that enjoyable 1960s music can be found in even the unlikeliest of places.

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