Audio: The Monkees live in Japan in 1968

7/8/2018

The latest entry on The Monkees Live Almanac's YouTube channel is audio from the group's tour of Japan in 1968.

The Monkees visited Australia and Japan in September and October 1968. In Japan, one of the concerts was filmed (most likely during the two day, three concert stay at Budokan Hall in Tokyo on October 3 and 4, 1968) and later broadcast on Japanese television. The audio recording and video footage, however, has never been officially released. The audio (straight from the video) does exist as a bootleg, but the video footage is presumed lost or destroyed.

Monkees archivist Andrew Sandoval has confirmed that multiple attempts have been made to find the missing video footage. "It was definitely broadcast and there has been communication with TBS [Tokyo Broadcasting System) in Japan to retrieve anything they had," he wrote on Facebook in 2017. "We asked many times and have been told they have nothing. Unless they made a film print of the video, it is unlikely it survived."

Interestingly enough, in an earlier, separate video posting of "Cuddly Toy" from this same concert on the Live Almanac's YouTube channel, "Rock Channel Archives" left the following comment:

"The concert was videotaped and wasn't broadcast until Monkeemania hit for a 2nd time in 1983. After that one airing, the video tape was labeled "re-use" and has never been seen again. This according to Mr. Udo who is like the Dick Clark of Japan. This audio is a cassette copy from broadcast TV."

The comment above refers to the resurgence in popularity of The Monkees in Japan in the early 1980s. Japan experienced the first rebirth of The Monkees in the '80s even before Micky, Davy, and Peter reunited for the mega-successful 20th Anniversary Tour of North America in 1986. When "Daydream Believer" was used in a Kodak commercial in Japan in 1980, Monkeemania was rekindled as the television show returned to the airwaves and Monkees albums were reissued, causing them to chart in that country once again. Demand for The Monkees was so high in Japan in the early '80s that Micky, Davy, and Peter all toured the country individually between 1981 and 1982, playing to near-hysterical audiences.

If the comment left by Rock Channel Archives is indeed accurate, it could explain the origins of the Japanese 1968 audio, which has circulated throughout Monkees tape trading circles since the '80s. (I first acquired a copy from a tape collector in the late 1980s.)

Below is the audio recording of The Monkees live in Japan in 1968 that has survived, and please note there are breaks between each track:

12 Comments

Scott

7/8/2018 21:16:38

This, to me, would be the Holy Grail of Video Footage.

mary

7/8/2018 21:19:25

The 1968 Japan Live recording shows just how great they were live. I really hope the video footage can be located!

Paris Stachtiaris

7/8/2018 21:47:59

I always thought that the concert was shown as the 60th episode of "The Monkees" television show in Japan.

Jason

7/8/2018 22:53:33

I don’t buy the 80s theory. Video players - both Betamax and VHS - abounded in Japan by 1982/3, and TV listings details were far more accurately kept then than in earlier eras. Monkee researchers were trying to trace this footage by the end of the 1980s, and we’d have heard more people confirm the 80s broadcast over these last 35 years if it was true. The “two extra broadcast slots in the 60s” theory makes so much more sense, and is the story I was hearing back at the end of the 80s - a mere 5 or 6 years from this alleged broadcast.

7/8/2018 23:21:16

The first time that I heard this audio, I thought to myself that if the video was located, it would sign their ticket into the Rock Hall of Fame. It proves how good a performing band they really were at this point in their career. With the audio alone, the naysayers will still argue that there were backing musicians for the tracks where it was just 4 of them.

The Japan performance is so much tighter than the Live 67 shows. Wherever Davy is playing bass in the set, I can't tell from the performance itself (that's a good thing because it means when Peter moved to the keyboards, the bottom stayed tight).

Of course, Peter did do fancier things on the bass (frankly, in my opinion to compensate for the lack of guitar solos) - for example, everyone can hear in this show and the Live 67 shows how Peter did a fancy bass run to compensate for the lack of the guitar solo in Clarksville. The actual bass part in the Clarksville record version is much simpler in that it functions under the guitar solo. (For an interesting aside, check out the video by Louie Shelton on YouTube that shows him explaining his Clarksville solo and riffs.)

This brings me to another point. Given how much Davy had improved on bass by this point, and the relatively simplicity of some of the recorded bass parts on the songs, I don't see why Davy didn't move to bass more often so Peter could play lead guitar when he wasn't playing keyboards. That would have filled out Monkees sound very well. For example in Clarksville, (1) Peter knew or could learn the guitar solo (see, e.g,, YouTube for Peter playing it during a Today show appearance in the 90s), and (2) Davy learned the bass part for Clarksville at some point around that time anyway (see YouTube for Davy playing it during the live medley on the Glen Campbell show).

Anyway, as noted above, if this could found it would be the Holy Grail of Monkees material. Even a better audio version without the spoken intros on top would be great.

7/8/2018 23:29:38

Also, big props to Micky. The improvement in his playing is probably the biggest reason why the band is some much tighter. That is also on display in the Circle Sky video in Head so that wasn't as much a surprise to me.

And the harmonies in Cuddly Toy... great work!

Tom

4/7/2020 00:26:01

Dude. I was buying what you were selling until the tail end. You're actually citing the Glen Campbell show medley?? C'mon, man! Are you SERIOUS?!?? The bass part in that medley is spot on, while it's plain as day that Davy is NOT playing a NOTE! (And thank heaven! Pure genius!) Obviously there's an off-screen bass player. I've seen in various posts where this plain fact has been pointed out. A quick YouTube search will even confirm the absurdity of your assumption.

Tom Czarnota link

7/9/2018 03:18:23

I thought Andrew had cleared up the mystery surrounding this artefact sometime ago, and that was that Japanese TV had the rights for one screening (copyright issues) and was obliged to wipe the tape after that one screening. We have the sound recording by sheer good luck and good karma and lets be happy with that. And the recording itself shows they were getting tighter as a band, probably because they had some time to practice properly and knew the songs backwards.

Benny

7/9/2018 09:25:33

Tom, I don't ever recall reading or hearing Andrew talk about the screening of the show/copyright issues. Can you point us to an interview where he says this?

rob

7/9/2018 19:07:59

Really great posts on this thread .. I had the pleasure of meeting a group of gals who fly in from Japan to see the NYC area shows and even attended the Monkees Convention in 2013. If I search my own emails I may be able to reach out to one of them. They are probably first gen fans like myself (mid 50's) I'm sure they would know if this airing ever took place in the 80's .. it does seem that if it was (as earlier noted) broadcast it surely would been taped and surfaced by now

John

7/9/2018 23:45:48

It looks like the closest we'll get to this visually will be the Listen To The Band segment of 33 1/3. It amazes me that they were still a tight unit that late in the original lineup's existence considered they hadn't played live in over a year, discounting the Salt Lake performance. I understand the need to bring in Sam and the Goodtimers after Peter left, but nothing beat the original four piece lineup.

Michael

7/14/2018 18:23:54

After they had finished this tour and took some time off for the holidays, I wish they had gone into the studio and recorded a double LP JUSTUS-style. They could have titled it: Listen To the Band.

Anyway, that's my Monkees fantasy.

Audio: The Monkees live in Japan in 1968

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