‘Take A Step Outside Yourself’

I'm old, chronologically - 63 years old. My musical cherry was popped in the late 60's by the Monkees. I was obsessed by them, their show was off the air so all I had were my albums - 'The Monkees', 'Headquarters', 'Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.' and 'The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees' '. They were the only band that I listened to and I listened incessantly - in fact I was so far down the Monkee rabbit hole that I was completely depressed when I found out that Peter Tork left the band. I would sit in my bedroom, listening the their tunes and stare at the album covers, wishing for times past when they were all together.

As you might guess, this unhealthy preoccupation with the Pre-Fab Four came to the attention of my parents. My father became concerned for my musical and mental health. In line with this, he went to the local Pathmark where they in fact sold top ten albums (it was a different world back then). He picked two albums that he thought might be good for breaking me of my addiction - one was a Beatles album, ‘Abbey Road’ and the other was by a band he didn't know but was recommended by the young clerk at the check-out - ‘Led Zeppelin’ . He came home that cold February afternoon and plunked these two albums on my bed and said "I know you're upset about the Monkees, but why don't you try giving these a listen."

At that moment I regarded my father as a demon interloper, attempting to rob me of my deep love and devotion to the Monkees. My dad could tell I was taken aback by his suggestion so he just left me to my own devices with those two albums, unopened on my bed.

Watch your step, fella.

On the 2nd floor of my house - albums would skip if I stepped to heavy. Try making an mp3 skip!

.

Time passed, I'm not sure if it was hours or days, but eventually I opened the Beatles album, placed it on the turntable in the Sears console in my room and listened. The first track was 'Come Together' - I felt uncomfortable but strangely drawn to the swampy bass, Ringo's high hat and toms and John’s nasal vocals expressing those cryptic lyrics - it all was foreign but intriguing. Next was 'Something' and I was fully engrossed by the lush instrumentation and perfect arrangement. Mind you, this is NOT what I was thinking at the time, I just new that this was new and very, very stimulating and I was hooked. Needless to say, the rest of the album became the start my Monkee Methadone treatment.

‘Led Zeppelin’ came next and it was kind of like eating your first olive or taking your first sip of beer - I didn't cozy up to the exotic flavors as easily as I did with 'Abbey Road', but there were songs and moments that had me wanting to check it out again. I especially took a liking to "Good Times, Bad Times", loved, loved the drumming (BTW, I had started playing drums that summer so my ears were especially attuned to what was going on with the 'percs') and 'Communication Breakdown' - loved the energy and my adolescent sex-brain especially liked it when Robert Plant utters 'Suck' just before the guitar solo.

My father had succeeded in breaking me of my of my Monkee habit. My next album was CCR's 'Green River' - how can you go wrong? Soon to follow was Steppenwolf, more Beatles ('Sgt. Pepper', 'Magical Mystery Tour', more CCR ('Willie and the Poor Boys', 'Bayou Country'). I also bought singles - "Paint It Black" by the Stones, "Hello, I Love You" by the Doors and most intriguingly, "Roundabout" by Yes.

My quest for new music and styles had begun - a quest that continues to this day. BTW, I still love the Monkees, always will - it’s like a baby duck being imprinted by what they first see upon birth; the Monkees were and are my ‘momma duck.’

I guess the lesson learned in all this is that sometimes you have to force yourself or allow the influence of others to let go, to move on. It's not easy sometimes, but nevertheless necessary. Hence, I have applied this approach in my life many times to good effect. And I thank my father and that clerk at Pathmark for pointing me in the right direction - my musical and personal life has benefit from this a thousand-fold.

One other ancillary benefit from my sharing this with you is that the links to albums and tunes in this post make a rather nice late 60’s, early 70’s playlist! The links in the post are all YouTube videos. And here’s a link to a playlist that I made of all the albums and tunes mentioned.

Spotify: Monkee Methadone

Happy personal growth, y’all!

Cheers!