Category: Headquarters

Davy Jones in the studio during the recording of "Headquarters"

9/9/2018

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(Photo courtesy of "Listen to the Band" box set booklet)

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Monkees fan purchases original "Headquarters" pressing with historic ticket stub inside

7/17/2018

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Live Almanac reader Andrew Lenahan recently acquired a Headquarters LP at a thrift store, and inside was a ticket stub from The Monkees' appearance at the Hollywood Bowl! The Monkees performed in front of a sold-out audience of over 17,000 at the historic venue on June 9, 1967. Just one day after this triumph, the group recorded "Pleasant Valley Sunday" at RCA Hollywood.

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Mike Nesmith in the studio while recording "Headquarters" in 1967

5/5/2018

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(From the June 1967 issue of Tiger Beat)

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The Monkees pose with Chip Douglas during the recording of "Headquarters" in 1967

3/9/2018

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Monkees Live Almanac & Iain Lee Exclusive: A Conversation with Chip Douglas

(From the August 1967 issue of Monkees Monthly)

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Micky and Peter clown around during sessions for "Headquarters"

1/5/2018

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Davy Jones photographed during sessions for "Headquarters"

12/8/2017

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(From the July 1967 issue of Flip)

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Song of the Day: "Can You Dig It"

12/2/2017

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In an August 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, Peter Tork spoke about his composition "Can You Dig It," a highlight from the soundtrack of The Monkees' 1968 feature film, Head:

"This started as a set of changes I wrote in college and didn't know what to do with. Then one afternoon on the set of The Monkees we were making the TV show and I had my guitar in my dressing room. The basic lyrics came to me and these changes I had stored in the back of my brain spring forth and dictated that kind of vaguely Spanish/North African harmonic sense. I was writing about the great unknown source of all. It was perfect for the Head soundtrack."

Here's "Can You Dig It" as it appeared in Head:

Micky Dolenz sang the officially released version of the song, but Peter also recorded a vocal for it that finally saw the light of day in 1994 on Rhino's CD release of the Head soundtrack:

Peter demoed the song, without vocals, during sesssions for The Monkees' third LP, Headquarters:

"Can You Dig It" made its first live appearance in a Monkees concert during the group's 1987 summer tour with Peter handling lead vocals and Micky on drums:

Here, Peter, Micky, and Michael perform "Can You Dig It?" at the State Theatre Regional Arts Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey on November 30, 2012:

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Inside look at Friday Music's latest Monkees release

11/5/2017

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Now available from Friday Music is Headquarters: Stack-O-Tracks on 180 gram clear vinyl. The LP features the instrumental backing tracks for each song from The Monkees' third album.

Thank you very much to Ben Belmares for providing scans of his copy that arrived today.

Friday Music Monkees Stack O Tracks Headquarters

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"Headquarters Stack O' Tracks" LP coming soon

9/29/2017

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The Monkees Headquarters Stack-O-Tracks (180 Gram Audiophile Clear Vinyl/50th Anniversary Edition)

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The "Randy Scouse Git" passes away

9/26/2017

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Tony Booth, actor and activist

Micky recalls the inspiration of "Randy Scouse Git" with Rolling Stone

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Nez remembers the inspiration for a line from "Zilch"

9/23/2017

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Recently on the Videoranch Facebook page, a fan named Barry asked Michael the following question: "Who is Mr. Bob Dobalina in the track 'Zilch'?" Here was his response:

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Michael Nesmith on "You Told Me"

9/15/2017

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In an August 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, Nez spoke about the opening track of The Monkees' third album, 1967's Headquarters:

"When I joined The Monkees they kept saying, 'You gotta write a pop song.' This is one of the two I wrote, along with 'The Girl I Knew Somewhere.' I was really happy with the way it turned out, and it came out on the only album we ever made by ourselves, which was Headquarters. When I say 'we,' I mean the four principal actors. Peter put a great banjo on it and it came to life.

"People think it was amazing that four guys hired for a TV show could actually form a band, but I don't see it that way. It's not that amazing when you think of the tenor of the times. You put any four guys in a room in the 1960s and you had a band, all the way from The Grateful Dead to Buffalo Springfield. It isn't that amazing that four people in a group would start singing and playing together, especially since they were hired to perform that as actors."