The Monkees Present

Track Listings

1. Little Girl

2. Good Clean Fun

3. If I Knew

4. Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye

5. Never Tell a Woman Yes

6. Looking for the Good Times

7. Ladies Aid Society

8. Listen to the Band

9. French Song

10. Mommy and Daddy

11. Oklahoma Backroom Dancer

12. Pillow Time

13. Calico Girlfriend Samba [CD Bonus][#]

14. Good Earth [CD Bonus][#]

15. Listen to the Band [CD Bonus][#]

16. Mommy and Daddy [CD Bonus][#]

17. Monkees Present Radio Promo [CD Bonus][#]

Tracks:

Little Girl
Good Clean Fun
If I knew
Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye
Never Tell A Woman Yes
Looking For The Good Times
Ladies Aid Society
Listen To The Band
French Song
Mommy And Daddy
Oklahoma Backroom Dancer
Pillow Time
Calico Girlfriend Samba (Prev. Unissued)
The Good Earth (Prev. Unissued)
Listen To The Band (Prev. Unissued Version)
Mommy And Daddy Listen To The Band (Prev. Unissued Version)
The monkees Present Radio Promo (Prev. Unissued)

Customer Reviews:

Oklahoma Backroom Dancin' All Over the Bad Reviews!!.......2007-04-19

Just Nesmith's tunes alone make this 5 stars. I know that it's not Hey, Hey We're the Monkees, but it's still interesting music.

Not one of their better releases.......2006-08-25

PRESENT is a very minor collection of late Monkees tunes. Only a couple of songs ("Listen To The Band" and the uncensored version of "Mommy and Daddy," included here as a bonus track) are of much interest. The material given to Davy is especially weak. Even the mix seems rough and hurried.

Only hardcore fans need pay much attention.

Weren't they good? They made me happy........2005-10-08

This was the Monkees second album without Peter Tork, and their eighth album overall. It is a mixed bag of songs. It features four songs by each of the remaining Monkees. Micky Dolenz contributed four strong songs, most of which he wrote himself. The controversial "Mommy and Daddy" is the standout among Micky's songs (the CD includes an even more controversial version of the song as a bonus track). Michael Nesmith contributed four solid county-rock songs, including the chart singles "Listen to the Band" and "Good Clean Fun". The inclusion of "Listen to the Band" is odd, since it had already appeared on The Monkees Greatest Hits album, released a few months earlier (of course, it's appearance here does make for a better overall album). Davy Jones is, in many ways, the weakest link on the album. Apparently, Davy had trouble coming up with enough new material for the album, because two of his songs are leftovers from the Monkees second album. But I actually like those two older songs better than the two new songs he recorded for the album, which are pretty boring. On the whole, the album works pretty well, and Monkees fans should enjoy it.

In retrospect, it belongs in the top Monkees 5.......2005-01-20

In my opinion, The Monkees Present marks the last "true" Monkees album of the group's original run. (The follow up "Changes" features only Dolenz and Jones. And you gotta have atleast THREE!)

This album has aged well, as it doesn't even have any of the sappier Davy Jones songs that sometimes cause you to embarrassingly skip over a track. (Although one comes close, more on that later.) Jones' "French Song" is actually rather enjoyable, sounding like something out of "Lupin III". And of course, Nesmith's "Listen To The Band" is, in my opinion, one of the five finest songs the Monkees ever recorded. The bonus tracks include an alternate take of this classic tune.

On to the other tracks, there are a few other decent numbers from Nesmith like "Never Tell A Woman Yes" which reminds a bit of the Beatles' "Rocky Raccoon". Nez also contributes "Good Clean Fun" and "Oklahoma Backroom Dancer" which both feature all the earmarks of his style, and do not disappoint.

Dolenz' "Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye" is one of his better late period songs, and has a bit of a western flavor to it. Dolenz' biting commentary on "Mommy And Daddy" was censored for the original release, but you can hear the true, superior version of the song as a bonus track here. Dolenz also sings the lead off track "Little Girl", which features the trademark Dolenz soothing vocals, and he closes the album with his lullaby "Pillow Time", not to be confused with the Headquarters bonus track.

Jones' "Looking For The Good Times", sounds quite a bit like the previous year's "Valleri", and "Ladies Aid Society" has that silly 60's novelty feel to it, and is a lot of fun. "If I Knew" is the only track that fails to impress here, as it's simply a cookie cutter Jones ballad that could just as easily have been on the first album.

Rounding out the other bonus tracks on the album, there is one other gem in particular, Nesmith's excellent "Calico Girlfriend Samba", which sounds alot like Nesmith's early solo work, and with good reason. He re-recorded this track (as well as Listen To The Band) with his First National Band. (I highly recommend seeking out discs of this great, forgotten group.) Also included are "The Good Earth", which is simply a spoken word poem by Jones, and a radio announcement from 1969 advertising The Monkees Present.

So this is the swan song of the Monkees as a trio, after becoming Tork-less with "Instant Replay" and then becoming Nez-less with "Changes". We wouldn't have a three Monkee line up again until 1987's "Pool It!" (Tork's return), and Nes would not return for a visit until 1996's "Justus". (Essentially, Headquarters 2.)

Four stars for The Monkees Present, and in ranking it next to the Monkees finest albums, I would likely rank them currently as:
1. Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.
2. Headquarters
3. Head
4. The Birds, The Bees, And The Monkees
5. The Monkees Present

4 and 5 can be interchangable for me, depending on mood.

No More Fun.......2004-07-22

Well by the time October of 69 arrived the Monkees were all but kaput. No one was having fun, and it was just a matter of time before the group would die a slow excruiating death. This was all coming down after "Headquarters" was dethroned from the #1 spot by "Sgt. Pepper". The Monkees were trying to show the world that they could be an actual rock group, and the only way they could was to destroy themselves, and that was done through the movie "Head". Well Peter Tork after "Head" bombed decided enough was enough, and quit. The two albums done by the trio of Dolenz, Jones, and Nesmith had some rather lame material on them, and it shows that they weren't happy to be doing these albums. I wonder if Davy was especially upset as he doesn't appear to be smiling on either cover. The first album "Instant Replay" had one song make it to the top 50, and that was "Teardrop City", and on "Present" Mike would have the lone hit with his song "Listen To The Band". However, since they no longer had a t.v. show no one wanted to; in another 8 months the Monkees would be history. Nesmith would leave the Monkees by the end of the year, and Mickey and Davy would be left behind to nail the coffin shut. Mickey called the last 3 albums commitments, but to me it was a waste of time and effort. They wanted no part of it, and neither did the public.

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1. Little Girl
2. Good Clean Fun
3. If I Knew
4. Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye
5. Never Tell a Woman Yes
6. Looking for the Good Times
7. Ladies Aid Society
8. Listen to the Band
9. French Song
10. Mommy and Daddy
11. Oklahoma Backroom Dancer
12. Pillow Time
13. Calico Girlfriend Samba [CD Bonus][#]
14. Good Earth [CD Bonus][#]
15. Listen to the Band [CD Bonus][#]
16. Mommy and Daddy [CD Bonus][#]
17. Monkees Present Radio Promo [CD Bonus][#]