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Michael "Jakko" Jakszyk (born Michael Lee Curran) is an English musician, record producer, and actor. He has released solo albums as a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist and has been the lead singer for King Crimson since 2013. In 1986, Jakko released the single "Judy Get Down"/"This Old Man." The A-side featured an uncredited performance by Davy Jones on backing vocals. Davy was listed as "Mystery Guest Star" in the musician notes on the rear side of the single's picture sleeve. Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics collaborated with Jakko in the '80s, and he also contributed to "Judy Get Down."  (Click image above to see the front side of the picture sleeve) I first heard this song in 1987 on a mixtape that I received from Jodi who was the co-president of the Monkees/Boyce & Hart Photo Fan Club, of which I was a member from 1986 to 1991 or so. You can see the track listing below. I thought I was swimming in riches with the material included on this tape! I recall "Judy Get Down" being a particular favorite.  Side A featured the songs from the bootleg Davy & His Band: Ninth Album, while Side B included solo material from Micky, Davy, and Peter in the '80s. I still have that tape!  "Judy Get Down" is available for download on iTunes, but the audio file above is an MP3 of the song that I received from a fellow fan some years ago. The 12" single version featured an extended mix with Davy's vocals playing a prominent role:
In January 1988, Davy Jones released Incredible!, an album featuring new material, a cover of the late 1950s song "Hippy Hippy Shake," and a re-recording of The Monkees' 1968 hit, "Valleri." The tracks were completed between February 1986 and July 1987 in Memphis, Sydney, Las Vegas, and New York City.
Fans were treated to an early reveal of the sessions when "After Your Heart" appeared as a single (with "Hippy Hippy Shake" as the B-side) in Australia in 1987. Both songs were performed live during Davy and Peter Tork's tour of Australia early that year.
1987 Australian picture sleeve (Image courtesy of Monkee45s.net)
Along with Davy himself, a host of individuals played on Incredible!, including members of The Grass Roots and The Monkees' 1986-1987 touring band, as well as the Staton Brothers, a group of songwriters and musicians that Davy had always admired. Co-produced by Davy, Mark Clarke (The Monkees' touring bassist in '86 and '87 who also worked with Billy Squier and Uriah Heep), Joe Hardy and Robert Merrill, the set featured contributions from "Daydream Believer" songwriter John Stewart ("She Believes"), the Staton Brothers ("Look Inside Yourself"), and Wreckless Eric ("You're Only Dreaming). Wreckless Eric, aka Eric Goulden, wrote "(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World," which appeared on The Monkees' 1987 LP, Pool It! Davy contributed his own "I'll Love You Forever," another song previously heard on Pool It! in a different version. "I'll Love You Forever" had also been consistently performed live on the 1986 and 1987 Monkees tours.
Davy issued Incredible! via Dome Press, which was responsible for his popular 1987 autobiography, They Made a Monkee Out of Me. It was only made available on cassette. The restrained roll-out of the album remains a mystery to this day, especially since at the time of its release The Monkees had just experienced an extremely successful comeback while celebrating their 20th Anniversary. "I just plain didn’t care to put that much energy into promoting Incredible," Davy later said. "Perhaps I should have. I just saw it as something to do for personal enjoyment and for the fans. Lord knows I spent enough money producing it." Incredible had the potential to reach a larger audience, but Davy himself seemed unmoved about the idea. "The '80s were so busy for us [The Monkees]. A lot of good things were set aside. My mind was on performing in 41,000 seat stadiums and having Monkees records all over the Top 40." Incredible! was released on CD in a very limited fashion in the late 2000s, and it can be streamed and purchased (with bonus tracks) at Davy Jones Bandcamp. Apparently the master tapes have been lost as the downloads appear to be taken from the original cassette.
A while after Incredible!, a cassette single comprised of "Don't Go" and "Hanging By A Thread" was released in late 1989. Recorded in 1987, "Hanging By A Thread" was written by Jerry Goldsmith, who enjoyed a career as a noted film composer. Davy performed the song live in concert during the 1989 North American/Japanese Monkees tour, and in solo appearances in the early 1990s.
 (Courtesy Dr. Pepper/Steve Hoffman Forum) Remember the blue-colored tape? It's kind of hard to tell by this picture, though!  Ahhh...the days of cassette tapes!  (From the collection of Scott Catton) Who had this album and/or cassette in their collection in the '80s?? Thanks to Scott Catton for submitting a scan of the fairly rare cassette version.  A big thanks to Lisa Manekofsky for sending in these scans of vintage RCA catalogs featuring Monkees titles. The second image below is from a cassette catalog. For easier reading, click on each image and then click on it again.   Though I haven't received an official email from Rhino, the ordering page for the deluxe set has changed its release date from 11/22/2011 to 11/29/2011. So, it appears we'll have to wait an extra week for the set. This is most likely due to new and improved audio sources being found by producer Andrew Sandoval for tracks from the TV special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee. Sandoval noted the following this weekend on his Facebook page: "I was able to access a new source for the audio of the 33 1/3 special at the last moment which was an improvement. However, due to time and space issues (every disc of this set is maxed out) only so much could be restored, recovered and replayed." Perhaps space issues is the reason why "I'm a Believer" and "Listen to the Band" from 33 1/3 aren't being included on this Instant Replay set. Hopefully we'll hear the other upgraded 33 1/3 audio on a future box set. Don't forget to check yesterday's blog post for a picture of what's inside the Instant Replay deluxe edition. It looks great! In the meantime, here's another Instant Replay picture to hold you over (courtesy of Ed over at the SH Forums). The original Colgems cassette!  |
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