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The Monkees: A Many Fractured Image
Now updated to include GOOD TIMES! This book is a look at the Monkees' music through playlists devoted each producer's vision of the band at various points in their career. The music that the Monkees released was an amalgamation of the efforts of several different producers. THE MONKEES: A MANY FRACTURED IMAGE is an attempt to root out each production team's individual efforts and compile them into playlists that help illustrate what each producer brought to the Monkees project and what they thought their music should sound like.
149 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 16, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 4, 2021
This book is a look at the music of the Monkees through playlists centered around the songwriter and/or producer of each starting from the first Monkees album in 1966 and ending in 2016 with the album "Good Times!" (the book was originally published in 2015 but was reprinted with the revision after the album was released).
I have been a super-fan of the Monkees since I was only 5-6 years old, watching them on TV reruns and had purchased (okay, my parents purchased) the four albums that currently existed back in the early 1970s. An adult now, I jumped at the idea of a book that discussed the songs of the Monkees, who wrote them and why, the meanings behind the lyrics, who played instruments on which songs and why different versions exist. And this book has all of that. Unfortunately, it also has many, many things wrong with it.
There are so many horrible and constant typographical errors throughout the entire books--added words, missing words, wrong words, misspellings, and either wrong or missing punctuation. It is hard to determine whether the author didn't know or just didn't care. And when he starts screwing up song lyrics and even the titles of songs, it starts to grate and it was only the fact that I was interested in some of the things he was saying that made me keep reading.
The author also seemed to have a real issue with Davy Jones and continued to bad-mouth him throughout the book, using words like "nasally", "saccharine", "pompous", "wussy", "whiny", "amateurish", and at one point commented that he was "running out of synonyms for dreck".
While he did not appear to have the same problem with Peter, he admitted to not having much to say about him as he was "merely the George Harrison of the Monkees"--which, unfortunately, led him to some rather incorrect statements and hypotheses if you knew the real Peter (who I met in concert once).
This could have been such a truly great book with an in-depth, not before seen (or at least by me) look at the music of the Monkees. Unfortunately, the author could not seem to take his personal feelings out of the equation and didn't bother/care about proofing or hiring an editor to do it for him. I would have loved to give this 5 stars. I am struggling to give it the 3 that I did. Not because of the Monkees, but because of the author who butchered the book. He would have gotten a 1 or 2 if it had been any other subject matter, but you don't mess with "my Monkees"!!
I have been a super-fan of the Monkees since I was only 5-6 years old, watching them on TV reruns and had purchased (okay, my parents purchased) the four albums that currently existed back in the early 1970s. An adult now, I jumped at the idea of a book that discussed the songs of the Monkees, who wrote them and why, the meanings behind the lyrics, who played instruments on which songs and why different versions exist. And this book has all of that. Unfortunately, it also has many, many things wrong with it.
There are so many horrible and constant typographical errors throughout the entire books--added words, missing words, wrong words, misspellings, and either wrong or missing punctuation. It is hard to determine whether the author didn't know or just didn't care. And when he starts screwing up song lyrics and even the titles of songs, it starts to grate and it was only the fact that I was interested in some of the things he was saying that made me keep reading.
The author also seemed to have a real issue with Davy Jones and continued to bad-mouth him throughout the book, using words like "nasally", "saccharine", "pompous", "wussy", "whiny", "amateurish", and at one point commented that he was "running out of synonyms for dreck".
While he did not appear to have the same problem with Peter, he admitted to not having much to say about him as he was "merely the George Harrison of the Monkees"--which, unfortunately, led him to some rather incorrect statements and hypotheses if you knew the real Peter (who I met in concert once).
This could have been such a truly great book with an in-depth, not before seen (or at least by me) look at the music of the Monkees. Unfortunately, the author could not seem to take his personal feelings out of the equation and didn't bother/care about proofing or hiring an editor to do it for him. I would have loved to give this 5 stars. I am struggling to give it the 3 that I did. Not because of the Monkees, but because of the author who butchered the book. He would have gotten a 1 or 2 if it had been any other subject matter, but you don't mess with "my Monkees"!!
October 28, 2024
I have been in a mood for The Monkees of late and have been rewatching the TV series and listening to their music. I've also read a few books about them and have been highly disappointed. Most of the authors I've read don't really seem to like The Monkees and I can't imagine why they wrote these books. This particular book is the worst offender so far. I've got 3 other Monkees related books on my wishlist, but I am reconsidering if I want to read them at all if they are anything like this book.
First of all, this book could benefit from a good editor. I found many misspellings and grammatical mistakes that made reading it difficult. He doesn't seem to really enjoy The Monkees' music and trashes quite a few of their songs. He also isn't much of a fan of Davy Jones, who is my favorite Monkees.
Read this at your own risk if you are a Monkees fan. If be interested to hear the thoughts of any other fans.
First of all, this book could benefit from a good editor. I found many misspellings and grammatical mistakes that made reading it difficult. He doesn't seem to really enjoy The Monkees' music and trashes quite a few of their songs. He also isn't much of a fan of Davy Jones, who is my favorite Monkees.
Read this at your own risk if you are a Monkees fan. If be interested to hear the thoughts of any other fans.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 12, 2018
An interesting take on the Monkees music. Rather than reviewing album by album, the author tackles it by producer. Although the spelling and grammar is suspect in parts, there are also one or two inaccuracies in there. Still an entertaining read at the end of the day.
January 6, 2022
The content was ok but the grammar and typos drove me insane. I wanted to edit as I went along but I figure this book has had a couple re-releases to add new material and the author couldn’t be bothered to have it edited, why should I?
December 31, 2016
This was an interesting approach to reviewing the Monkees vast catalog of music--and it actually helps to make the disparate sounds make sense. By grouping the music by producer and time frame rather than by album, there is a noticeable coherent theme through each playlist. It's a fairly easy read that I think any fan of the Prefab Four will like.
That said, the author's spelling and grammatical errors take quite a bit away from the book and I ended up having to re-read several sentences and paragraphs because I could not understand what he was saying. Further, his use of the word "pastiche" (I did not count, but it seemed to be several times per chapter) made me think he either had a "word of the day" dare or lost a bet.
Overall, far better than a couple of similar books and worth the price on an e-reader.
That said, the author's spelling and grammatical errors take quite a bit away from the book and I ended up having to re-read several sentences and paragraphs because I could not understand what he was saying. Further, his use of the word "pastiche" (I did not count, but it seemed to be several times per chapter) made me think he either had a "word of the day" dare or lost a bet.
Overall, far better than a couple of similar books and worth the price on an e-reader.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews