{"id":1006,"date":"2007-11-20T09:33:22","date_gmt":"2007-11-20T14:33:22","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-10T17:03:02","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T17:03:02","slug":"jimi-hendrix-and-the-monkees-had-more-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/jimi-hendrix-and-the-monkees-had-more-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimi Hendrix and The Monkees Had More in Common Than Met the Ear"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><small>Rock Town Hall apologizes in advance for the <strong>Prince<\/strong>-directed video that is used to represent Jimi&#8217;s last great single.<\/small><\/em><\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xN4KBMVBL0A?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>It&#8217;s a truism that the live bill briefly pairing <strong>The Monkees<\/strong> with opening act <strong>Jimi Hendrix<\/strong> was the most mismatched live bill in rock. Of course, at the heart of this mismatch was the fact that the headliners were a concocted, confected bubblegum band put together to serve a tv version of a fictional American Beatles while the opener was soon to make his mark as the Greatest Guitar Hero of the genre, a true artist and visionary. <em>However, Jimi Hendrix and The Monkees had more in common than initially met the ear.<\/em><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nThey were both great <strong>singles artists<\/strong>. In fact, I&#8217;d argue that, the unparalelled guitar playing and Look of Hendrix aside, each artist&#8217;s main contributions to rock were through their hit singles.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/jimismash.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"310\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Essential!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Except for the most dire pop nerds among us &#8211; you know the type, the ones who shelled out for the 8-CD, limited Rhino Handmade edition of <em>Headquarters<\/em> &#8211; we&#8217;re content in our knowledge that The Monkees were a great singles band, definitely worthy of two standard-issue, vinyl-era volumes of Greatest Hits. Some might even argue that The Monkees were a better singles band than <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php?title=let_me_tell_you_there_are_25_similar_con&amp;more=1&amp;c=1&amp;tb=1&amp;pb=1\" title=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php?title=let_me_tell_you_there_are_25_similar_con&amp;more=1&amp;c=1&amp;tb=1&amp;pb=1\">The Byrds<\/a><\/strong>, and that&#8217;s cool if you feel that way.<\/p>\n<p>Where we might get into difficulty is the notion that I hold that Jimi&#8217;s <em>Smash Hits<\/em> collection is in dire need of a volume 2&#8230;and that <em>Smash Hits, Vol. 2<\/em> is all else that rock fans need to own by Jimi Hendrix. If you&#8217;re studying to be the next <strong>Steve Ray Vaughn<\/strong> or <strong>Frank Marino<\/strong>, go ahead and buy the full Hendrix albums, including a handful of those pseudo-lost ones with the posthumous overdubbed studio parts. For the rest of you, think about what I&#8217;m saying.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/jimiexp.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"298\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Redundant?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>I know what you&#8217;re thinking: <em>&#8220;Interesting idea you&#8217;ve put forth, Mr. Mod&#8211; I wouldn&#8217;t expect less from you&#8211;but what would this <em>Smash Hits, Vol. 2<\/em>, look like?&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not all the way there in developing the track listing&#8211;and this is one area in which I&#8217;ll need your help&#8211;and I won&#8217;t even begin to try sequencing this collection, but let&#8217;s start with the tracks that didn&#8217;t make it to <em>Smash Hits<\/em> from Hendrix&#8217;s one great album, the debut, <em>Are You Experienced?<\/em>: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Love or Confusion&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I Don&#8217;t Live Today&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;May This Be Love&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Third Stone From the Sun&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Are You Experienced?&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Not a bad start for side 1, is it? Whoops, did I just hear someone ask, &#8220;If you&#8217;re going to spread all of the tracks on <em>Are You Experienced?<\/em> over the two volumes of Greatest Hits, how can you say none of Hendrix&#8217;s studio releases are worth owning?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fair question, and truth be told, we could keep the first album in print, but I think my plan of the two volumes of Greatest Hits better serves rock consumers in the <strong>iPod<\/strong> age. Each of those cool tracks from the debut are now available for download and <em>Shuffle Play<\/em>, and you, the 21st Century Consumer, are not faced with essentially buying the same album twice.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s move onto some other selections I envision worthy of inclusion on <em>Smash Hits, Vol. 2<\/em>. From the fat-laden and horribly titled <em>Axis: Bold as Love<\/em> I&#8217;m culling the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Spanish Castle Magic&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Little Wing&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;If 6 Was 9&#8243;* <\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Castles Made of Sand&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By the way, I never noticed this before, but <em>Smash Hits<\/em> (Vol. 1) failed to include even one cut from this album! And you call me a Hendrix miser&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/jimiessential.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"349\" height=\"277\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Essential?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>From the double-album and greatly titled <em>Electric Ladyland<\/em> I&#8217;ll add the following tracks not already covered on <em>Smash Hits, Vol. 1<\/em>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Voodoo Child (Slight Return)&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A &#8220;slight return&#8221; to pop structure, I suppose.<\/p>\n<p>There are some Hendrix leftovers to throw onto this collection&#8211;and to be released separately should be a double-album collection of Jimi&#8217;s finest live performances. Here&#8217;s what else I&#8217;m hearing to make <em>Smash Hits, Vol. 2<\/em> a worthwhile purchase:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Dolly Dagger&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Angel&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><small>*Yeah, I know I don&#8217;t really like that song, but it has some funny parts.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rock Town Hall apologizes in advance for the Prince-directed video that is used to represent Jimi&#8217;s last great single. It&#8217;s a truism that the live bill briefly pairing The Monkees with opening act Jimi Hendrix was the most mismatched live bill in rock. Of course, at the heart of this mismatch was the fact that <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/jimi-hendrix-and-the-monkees-had-more-in\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[59],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}