Sunday, April 03, 2011

Six Reasons Why This is so Awesome

1. I overcame a 43 year-long prejudice against watching the movie 'Head', which this is from. When I was 8 years old I heard my beloved Monkees were in some yucky movie where they were all....weird..and I wanted nothing to do with it. At 51 I finally realized that a 1968 movie directed by Jack Nicholson featuring the members of The Monkees had to be pretty interesting. But I still had a moment of 'But it's that scary, yucky movie...' before ordering it from Netflix.
Of course I ended up liking it. But I wouldn't have in 1968.

2.Davy Jones was not 'my Monkee', but his charisma in this clip blows me away. If you are a woman between around mid 40s and late 50s you understand what it means to have had 'your' Monkee. My Monkee, just for the record, was Peter. As an adult I competely support that choice. My Beatle was Ringo. There are obvious similarities.

3.This is visually stunning. I love the cutaway shots, the costume changes from black and white to white and black, the editing, and the non-gratuitous strobe sequences.

4. Hello, that's Toni Basil dancing with Davy Jones. Seriously. A young, beautiful Toni Basil without that dreadful 'Hey Mickey' makeup spackled on her face.

5. Ok, yeah, there's Frank Zappa at the end, Frank Zappa with a cow, whatever, which some would say is the best part. I'm not a big Frank Zappa fan. For some reason, he reminds me of Yoko Ono, except I think Yoko Ono is more earnest (discuss). I do kind of like the snarky commentary though, and he's a vision in a suit. What a presence.

6. Although this is a cheesed up version, it's a poignant song written by Harry Nilsson. The lyrics to 'Daddy's Song' are worth reading.