Thursday, June 09, 2011

Thursday Monkees Karaoke

From 1967, and the sessions for their masterpiece Headquarters, here's the pre-fab four and the final instrumental track of Mike Nesmith's glorious folk-rock classic "You Just May Be the One."





By the way, there are no non-Monkees or session musicians playing on that track. It's really them. All of it. Peter Tork on bass and Mickey Dolenz on drums (Nesmith is on the 12-string, obviously). And you should start singing the thoughtfully included lyrics below at the :09 seconds mark.
All men must have someone, have someone
Who'd never take advantage
Of a love bright as the sun.
Someone to understand them,
And you just may be the one.

All men must have someone, have someone
Who'd never take for granted
All the pleasures and the fun.
Someone to stand beside them
And you just may be the one.

I saw when you walked by
The lovelight in your eye
And I knew I must try
To win you more than just a friend,
I'm starting near the end,
And here I go again.

All men must have someone, have someone
Who'd never take advantage
Of a love bright as the sun.
Someone to stand beside them
And you just may be the one.
Someone to understand them,
And you just may be the one.
And just to add a little note of obnoxious self-aggrandizement, here's a live cover version of the song by The Floor Models -- featuring a bass player whose name rhymes with Sleeve Nimels -- at the Other End in Greenwich Village, circa 1982.



The harmonies aren't stellar, and the recording is crappy, but boy, the band really cooks IMHO.

14 comments:

steve simels said...

Note to self:

Singalong backing tracks much less interesting to readers than hoped.
:-)

Sal Nunziato said...

I'm still here! I love this shit. And, by the way, in the very early stages of Pep In The Cat, fellow reader, FDNYC13 and I would do this acoustically, right around 1981. But, we couldn't get a Monkees track passed the other members.

steve simels said...

We did a genuinely killer "Clarksville," too.

It's in part III of the YouTube video, if memory serves.

Conni said...

Thanks for posting this!

As a HUGE Monkees fan, I'm always on the lookout for Monkees covers. The band does indeed nail it.

pete said...

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I like a fat drummer.

Conni said...

btw, I am stuckinlodi no more at Eschaton

Anonymous said...

Not only am I singing along, I am also playing air guitar. Never knew there was that teensy bit of acoustic guitar in the right track. And that Gretsch 12-string -- wish there'd been more of those made.

As to that other band, that's gotta be the best bass intro ever played on any cover of that particular song. The drumming is also awesome.

AP

Rushbo said...

...find a version with vocals but without Bass and we'll talk.

matthew said...

My Monkees baptism came as a 7 year old, courtesy of "Headquarters."
As a result, "You Just May Be The One" "Shades of Grey" and "Zilch" are a lot higher on my mental Top 40 than "Clarksville" or "I'm Believer."

Great cover. That Nimels guy has some chops.

Matt Wright

Billy B said...

That was pretty cool. I got the album when it first came out the summer betwixt the 5th and 6th grade. Used to pick up returnable pop bottles for 2 cents a bottle. Took me a while to come up with the 3 or 4 bucks the album cost.

Poor old Davy Jones. All he did for the most part was play the tambourine.

Anonymous said...

that sucked out loud. I listen to my old band tapes and dig them but find that others don't. Ditto here.

Anonymous said...

"Fat drummer " ? You mean,"PHAT",no ?
GB

steve simels said...

Anonymous said...

that sucked out loud. I listen to my old band tapes and dig them but find that others don't. Ditto here.


I'm sure there are other blogs out there with higher standards that are more to your taste.

Jonathan F. King said...

I totally appreciate backing trax ... keep 'em coming if you have more. I collect them in a folder on my hard drive so I can sing along with Procol Harum or the Marvelettes as the mood strikes me.