A Barrel of Monkees is More Fun

Hey, who's that horsing around in the back there?

Dialing back the time machine to my very first music purchase, we fall upon a battered but still standing 45 rpm single. Here, dear reader, is the story of that record:

The odd kid in elementary school, Mike, was actually a nice guy once you got to know him. Still odd, but he was cool in his own way. As I struck up a friendship with this guy around grade four or five, it became apparent that we shared some musical interests. In the early 1970's, there were still plenty of 60's holdouts in syndication on television. For instance, my steady diet of TV shows included the likes of The Munsters, The Addams Family, Get Smart, Hogan's Heroes, Batman, The Beverly Hillbillies... the list goes on. 

But one of the real biggies for me at this particular time was The Monkees. From the opening drum thump of the theme song to the end credits' kickin' "For Pete's Sake", I was glued to the Monkees' TV show every day after school. 

As Wacky Mike and I were chatting about The Monkees at school one day, the conversation turned to records. Apparently, he owned some Monkees music. And I did not. He hinted at selling some records to me so he could buy more bubblegum. Thus far in my short life, I had only a handful of "kiddie" records... you know, abridged audio versions of Disney movies and such. One that I recall wearing out was The Jungle Book, with its catchy but kid-oriented "Bare Necessities". I was itching for some more grown-up music. So Mike and I struck a deal. Next day I brought a pocketful of nickels and dimes in exchange for Mike's "I'm A Believer" 45 rpm record. The disc was a bit scuffed but it played just fine on my little portable plastic record player. That machine was to eventually carve up some real rock albums that never deserved to be treated so harshly. But hey, it was all I had to work with at the time.

That record, with "Goin' Down" on the B-side, endured even more wear and tear as I listened to it endlessly for weeks and months. "I'm a Believer" especially was a favourite of mine. It wasn't long before Mike and I made yet another deal. This time Mike was ready to part with the LP "More of the Monkees". Wow, a whole album of their music, pretty much every song featured in the TV show. Heaven! From "Mary Mary" to "Sometime in the Morning", this was all primo Monkees music, and I still love to give it a spin on occasion. Sadly, that original LP is long gone, but I did more recently find a neat set of Monkees CDs sleeved in little reproductions of the original record jackets. Behold!