Tunesday : Listen to the Band

Listen to the Band

(Nesmith, M) Performed by The Monkees

Hey, hey, mercy woman plays a song and no one listens
I need help, I'm falling again

Play the drum a little louder
Tell me I can live without her 
If I only listen to the band 

Listen to the band

Weren't they good, they made me happy
I think I can make it alone

Oh, mercy, woman plays a song and no one listens
I need help, I'm falling again

Play the drum a little bit louder
Tell them they can live without her 
If they only listen to the band

Listen to the band

Now weren't they good, they made me happy
I think I can make it alone

Oh, woman plays a song and no one listens
I need help I'm falling again

Come on, play the drums just a little bit louder
Tell us we can live without her
Now that we have listened to the band

Listen to the band

There weren't very many kid-oriented shows on TV when I was little - Saturday morning cartoons, The Wonderful World of Disney on a Sunday night (hoping it would be an animated feature and not one of those lame 70s live-action snorefests) - so even if The Monkees wasn't, technically, a kids' show, you can bet my brothers and I watched it in repeats after school for the bright colours and the goofy action. On the other hand: Dave, while also having had this show on in the background of his childhood, has always thought of The Monkees as a real band; as rock stars. He went to see them on tour in the 80s - more than once - but since Mike Nesmith was busy at the time managing and spending all that sweet, sweet Liquid Paper money, Dave never got to see the fourth Monkee live - until last night. (Who'd have ever thought typewriters and correction fluid would go the way of buggy whips and powdered wigs? Liquid Paper must have seemed like a bottomless goldmine when Mama Nesmith invented it.) This is a happy man:

Mike Nesmith and Micky Dolenz are currently touring "The Mike and Micky Show", and Dave was unbelievably excited to go see it; he had Kennedy buy tickets the minute they went on sale back in March (and was disappointed that she got us box seats - which I prefer - instead of front row, which we probably could have gotten; and which I would have hated when all the old former go-go dancers eventually rushed the front of the stage to do the Mashed Potato; the Swim.) Kennedy had bought four tickets - because Dave assumed our girls would be excited to see The Monkees, too - but in the end, Kennedy needed to attend a  rehearsal and Mallory is out of town on a dig (which is probably for the best: if they couldn't have mustered up genuine enthusiasm, Dave's feelings would have been hurt; he was really anxious for Mike and Micky's feelings when he saw that the theatre was only half-filled.) Ultimately, we brought Dan and Rudy with us; and as we got to have a nice dinner out beforehand and chummy conversation during the concert - with people who actually remember the show and the music - it was a fun night out.

During the show, Rudy posted a picture to facebook of (the now 73 year old) Mike Nesmith, writing, "Can't believe this was the guy I planned on marrying! Still think he's cute even without the the toque"; which is funny because Mike was my favourite; the Monkee that I wanted to marry. He was the funniest, the coolest, the most laid back, and for whatever reason*, this tune of his, Listen to the Band, was probably my favourite Monkees song (and I'm glad they played it last night alongside all the obscure B sides that Dave was delighted by). Now, Mike and Micky are both older than my own parents (which didn't bother me when I was a kid and choosing my favourite), and they still put on a great show (we couldn't believe that Micky's voice sounds exactly the same and he strides and glides across the stage like a much younger man; Mike was a little slower, but still himself even without a wool hat), and I'm just happy that I ended up marrying the guy who can air guitar along in his box seat with these "rock stars", the biggest smile on his face, forever transported back to being a happy little kid every time he re-experiences something from his childhood. Turns out, Dave's my favourite.

Listen to the band!

* It didn't take much further consideration to figure out why Listen to the Band would have been so compelling to me in my developing years. Opening with "Hey hey, mercy woman" in a masculine-toned semi-twanging Texas drawl would have made me feel like a manly man was saying I might have been too womanly a woman for him to handle (have mercy), and there's danger in that; and danger is sexy. But when Mike gets to the line "Play the drum a little louder" and smiles despite himself as the percussion joins in (which is an even more obvious connection in the ten minute version of this video taken from their live-recorded TV show, 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee), that makes it all safe; that's the unseriousness that takes away the danger of actually playing out a fantasy. And the thing about The Monkees was that you always had this playful, unserious visual aspect to the songs; they're ultimately sexless, and that's a safe place within which a young girl can explore what she's attracted to.