Fleurs

Inniswood Gardens
Westerville, Ohio

Today's Monkee hit is a Davy song; A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You and the more obscure song is Love Is Only Sleeping, from their fourth album, 1967's Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.. Neither this album nor Headquarters hold quite as many hits as the first two, studio-controlled albums do, but they are infinitely better work. "Love Is Only Sleeping" is a Mike song, and despite that, there is barely a country tinge to be heard. There is, however, a maturity in the choice of material - and the execution of it - that wasn't there on even the last album.

One of the things I like so much about these guys is that the studio picked out four guys who were supposed to play a rock and roll band on a tv show who were supposed to be cute and nonthreatening and go along with whatever the studio wanted them to do, including act when told to and sing when told to, and pretty much make money and shut up about it. But what they got when they chose these four particular guys were two actors & two musicians who got along well enough - and had enough talent - to rebel and demand to be able to create their own music. The two actors learned what to do musically well enough, and the two musicians handled the acting well enough that they were charming and fun in front of either cameras or mikes. In other words, they could have just gone along with the gig as it was presented, gotten famous and made a ton of money, but instead they cared very much about what they were doing and wanted to take a hands-on approach, learn and succeed on their own merits. I have to admire that.