"All I'm saying is I'm not ready For any person place or thing To try and pull the reins in on me"
For years I've felt those lines to be evil and a celebration of disconnectedness. I wonder if the era called for them, or if they helped shape the era, or if they were feedback.
The same lines James quotes always irritated me, too. (Yeah, yeah, you've got to be free. Get over it.) It's not a song I care for much, but I sing it with the ladies I play with here, because they like it. In looking up the lyrics so I could write down the chords and learn the song, I was awfully surprised to find Nesmith had written it. I always assumed Carole King wrote it. At least when a woman sings it, there's a little irony in the "I'm not saying you're not pretty" line and in her telling her man not to cling. In a man's voice, it's even more banal.
Nevertheless, I was a big old Monkees fan as a child. I think my first album was Herman's Hermits, but my second was the Monkees. I watched their TV show ("Hey, hey, we're the Monkees! and people say we're foolin' around"). I still enjoy "I'm a Believer" and "Last Train to Clarksville."
"I'm a Believer" was by Neil Diamond, who wrote it while he was still at NYU. He was fencer, and a psychiatrist friend told me he was on the team at the same time, and kept trying to get publishers interested in the song; also, that he (my friend) had gone to Hungary for a year for fencing instruction and competition in the 60's. It all sounded pretty fishy. But with the wonders of the internet, I could check and find that my friend was indeed national champion that year, and that Diamond was on the team at the same time.
Which means, BTW, that Neil must've been pretty good, as NYU was perennially one of the best teams in the country in that era.
5 comments:
That is the consensus. Is that settled science? His mother invented White-Out. So much for being only a secretary.
"All I'm saying is I'm not ready
For any person place or thing
To try and pull the reins in on me"
For years I've felt those lines to be evil and a celebration of disconnectedness. I wonder if the era called for them, or if they helped shape the era, or if they were feedback.
Talented yeah, but I always felt he was a bit of a snob.
The same lines James quotes always irritated me, too. (Yeah, yeah, you've got to be free. Get over it.) It's not a song I care for much, but I sing it with the ladies I play with here, because they like it. In looking up the lyrics so I could write down the chords and learn the song, I was awfully surprised to find Nesmith had written it. I always assumed Carole King wrote it. At least when a woman sings it, there's a little irony in the "I'm not saying you're not pretty" line and in her telling her man not to cling. In a man's voice, it's even more banal.
Nevertheless, I was a big old Monkees fan as a child. I think my first album was Herman's Hermits, but my second was the Monkees. I watched their TV show ("Hey, hey, we're the Monkees! and people say we're foolin' around"). I still enjoy "I'm a Believer" and "Last Train to Clarksville."
"I'm a Believer" was by Neil Diamond, who wrote it while he was still at NYU. He was fencer, and a psychiatrist friend told me he was on the team at the same time, and kept trying to get publishers interested in the song; also, that he (my friend) had gone to Hungary for a year for fencing instruction and competition in the 60's. It all sounded pretty fishy. But with the wonders of the internet, I could check and find that my friend was indeed national champion that year, and that Diamond was on the team at the same time.
Which means, BTW, that Neil must've been pretty good, as NYU was perennially one of the best teams in the country in that era.
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