List Price : $59.98 Price : $43.95
Product Description
No Description Available.
Genre: Popular Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 27-FEB-2001
Amazon.com
Assembled via casting call as American television's answer to the Beatles, the Monkees incurred the wrath of "serious" critics from L.A. to London. But, though initially a manufactured pop commodity, they displayed a willful, sometimes perverse, drive to wrest control of their musical destiny from the all-star stable of songwriters and producers (including Boyce and Hart, King and Goffin, Mann and Weil, Neil Diamond, and Chip Douglas) who made them pop stars. Maybe the notoriously frenzied '60s had something to do with it: their artistic legacy in that decade bridged both Don Kirshner and Jack Nicholson; and Jimi Hendrix opened for them, if only a few times, on a 1967 tour. Even more unlikely, that legacy had a three-decade-plus staying power well beyond its obvious nostalgic charms.
Though Rhino has previously reissued and anthologized the Monkees' catalog to seemingly exhaustive extremes, this four-disc collection of 99 tracks (each individually annotated by band members and songwriters in the set's colorful booklet) is the only one that spans their full recorded output. Structured around the A- and B-sides of the band's singles, strong album cuts, and outtakes (including three previously unreleased), it's a journey that's both comfortably familiar and occasionally surprising. The Monkees' individual parts--Mike Nesmith's tuneful, pioneering country-rock; Davy Jones's Broadway-honed panache; Peter Tork's spirituality and innate musical chemistry; and Micky Dolenz's loopiness and occasionally avant-garde instincts--are showcased well. But by the sometimes-spotty fourth disc (largely spanning the mid-'70s to mid-'90s), the band's output was hampered by partial lineups, part-time commitments, and, perhaps ironically, the lack of the very pop song-crafter thoroughbreds who'd helped to establish their legend in the first place. --Jerry McCulley
Music Box Reviews
Music Box Reviews
| 57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:  Some Unadvertised Oddities, By This review is from: Music Box (Audio CD) While I pretty much agree with my fellow Wisconsinite's review of this box set, I would like to point out that there are a number of oddities on here besides the unissued mix of Of You and the unissued extended version of Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)(thank you, Rhino, it's about time!) that are not advertised on the package that this information might be useful to potential buyers. For instance, the following tracks carry the same mixes on the Listen To The Band box set but are different on the rereleases of the individual CDs of the mid 90's; they are: Tapioca Tundra, Auntie's Municipal Court, Listen To The Band (stereo single mix), and Steam Engine. All The King's Horses is a mono mix which has a better sound balance than the one found on Missing Links vol 2. Do Not Ask For Love has a "guide" vocal along with Micky that's not present on Missing Links vol 2. All Of Your Toys is a stereo mix that's not available anywhere else. Carlisle Wheeling has an extended ending not... Read more 18 of 18 people found the following review helpful: Don't put all your Monkees in one barrel-or maybe u should!, By liannai (NJ) - See all my reviews This review is from: Music Box (Audio CD) I have to say that this boxset is definitely a high point in illustrating the career of The Monkees. I've been a huge fan since the mid 80's when I just a little kid, but recently I've come to really enjoy and respect their music. Sure they were the "pre-fab four", but Micky, Davy, Mike and Peter later proved (sadly, not to public appeal..) that they were real people, not just their TV personalities, and that they could form a band, and actually WRITE and PLAY their own songs. I actually respect the guys for breaking away from their teeny bopper image, and actually going on to learn how to actually play, and BE a band. This boxset seems to be the be all, end all of the Monkees. It has almost every song the Monkees ever did all on this one set. The CDs are each by year, CD1 is from 1966, featuring a majority of the songs from the TV show (minus "Laugh" for some reason..) and their biggest hits like "Clarksville" and "I Wanna Be Free", as well as a really cool... Read more 29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:  A worthy starting point for the Monkee's novice, By This review is from: Music Box (Audio CD) It's hard to find fault with Rhino for the constant repackaging of the Monkee's catalog when they do it as well as this. I bought the 1991 Listen To The Band box set when it came out and was thrilled with it, even with it's heavy reliance on the inferior product of the band's later years. This one is pretty much the same way, with some decent cuts from the excellent Missing Links discs thrown in for something different. I tend to think of Rhino's never ending repackaging as a good thing because of the problems I had finding anything Monkee's related in the early 80's before Rhino had the rights to the music. Back then I had a collection of badly treated vinyl albums that I had scrounged from record shows and dollar bins of used record stores. From these albums I had assembled what I thought was a pretty nice 90 minute cassette filled with what I considered the best of the band's recorded output. Once I was in downtown Cincinnati to pick my mom up from work and I had my Monkees... Read more |
› See all 41 customer reviews...
No comments:
Post a Comment