Monkeys movie "Head"

The Monkeys movie "head" is running on Turner Classic Movie. It was not nearly as bad as folks said and I actually enjoyed a couple of new to me
Monkeys song. They had help from Jack Nicolson making this movie. Lots of flashing psychedelic stuff. Not sure most people would make to the end of the film. I thought it interesting but mostly weird. Very rare to see this movie.

Interesting Monkey fact. Jimi Hendrix was the warm up band for the first Monkeys tour. Needless to say it did not go well with all the kids yelling
"we want the monkeys" as Jimi played.

Z

I saw it at the theatre when it came out, and wondered how they could make such a "non" Monkees movie. Certainly entertaining, but heavy-handed psychedelic (Hollywood didn't understand psychedelic until the era was over, even with people like Jack around).

That same year, Wild In The Streets proved to be a far more entertaining movie for the age group, and had an amazingly good soundtrack for a Hollywood flick. "Shapes of Things to Come" actually charted to #22.

Did Canada have its own top 100 or was it the same songs as Casey was counting down each week in the US? Was more BTO, Guess Who played
up north??

Z

Excellent question. In 1968, the same year as those movies, the Federal govt passed the Canadian Content portion of the Broadcasting Act, requiring 25% of anything played on the radio be Canadian in origin (there were some weird workarounds involved, though). This "CanCon"was a hated move by those in the business, but it did result in a massively huge boost to the Canadian music industry. Admittedly, some tunes got on the air that never should have, but then that happens anyway, lol.

Long before that, we had our own top 40 in the various markets... but those of us interested listened to Casey and Dick if we could pull them in... in fact, a lot of stations paid for subscriptions to those two. And various stations had their own music gurus, usually much more in-depth than rolling out the hits. (With my Dad in the army, we moved from Victoria to various cities and out to Dartmouth over the years, so I got to listen to all kinds of local stations.)

The Guess Who had their own half-hour TV show (Let's Go) in Winnipeg for years. They went from being a cover band to their own persona in that time. Each day of the week highlighted a major city, from Vancouver to Halifax, and the local rock scene. In Vancouver, The Collectors appeared frequently; they eventually became Chilliwack and had huge hits. In Toronto, Alec Trebek hosted Let's Go. In Halifax, Anne Murray was the regular chanteuse. I think the show was on about 5 pm, so after school and before dinner.

None of us who saw it will ever forget Burton Cummings and The Guess Who dressing up in exact copies of the Sgt. Pepper's band outfits and devoting a whole show to songs from the album.

The CanCon rules probably helped The Guess Who, but they were a band that certainly didn't need it. Whether or not April Wine benefited, I don't know. But BTO came after Cummings and Bachman had a bitter break up about future directions, and Canadian stations would have played anything by them.

I suppose this CanCon rule is why we see so much William Shatner stuff on
Shaw right?

So who are the Canadians band and folks who made it in US.

Joni Mitchell
Gordon Lightfoot
BTO
Guess Who
Bryan Adams (?? I think)
Neil Young
William Shatner (yep he did make an album LOL)
Leonard Cohen

Z

Again, interesting question, and I don't really know. CanCon rules state that 50% of TV be Canadian in content during primetime hours.

In the music business, they had the MAPL standard: Music, Artist, Performance, and Lyrics. And a song had to have two of those to be considered Canadian. I don't know if there is something similar for TV, eg. that a Canadian actor in a U.S. movie qualifies. Lots of U.S. TV and movies are made in Canada (tax breaks and lower costs); it would be interesting to find out how the regulations are actually policed.

This link has 50 Canadian musician expats in the U.S.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Canadian_expatriate_musicians_in_the_United_States. David Foster in particular is huge in the biz, and that nerd from the Letterman show is, too.

If anyone is interested I have high quality rips of Head, Wild In The Streets, and every Monkees TV episode. (I am an admitted data-whore).

Happy to share if you want to provide a couple of USB sticks for transfer.

Axixic wrote:If anyone is interested I have high quality rips of Head, Wild In The Streets, and every Monkees TV episode. (I am an admitted data-whore).

Happy to share if you want to provide a couple of USB sticks for transfer.

So what did you think of head? Contrary to the reviews I thought it watchable.

Z

Zedinmexico wrote:So what did you think of head? Contrary to the reviews I thought it watchable.

Z

I didn't like it in 1968 but I was just a kid and was used to the canned humour approach of the series. My taste for the avante garde wasn't at all developed yet.

I re-discovered it many years later and liked it a lot. I think it was the first on screen appearance by Teri Garr (God, she is young in her scene) and I thought Nesmith was in particularly great form in it. The casting of Annette Funicello was inspired.

I read once that they titled it "Head" fully expecting to make a sequel which they planned to promote as being "...from the people who gave you Head."

Axixic wrote:The casting of Annette Funicello was inspired.

Funny this should just come up and then today...
'Mickey Mouse Club' original Annette Funicello dies

Zedinmexico wrote:I suppose this CanCon rule is why we see so much William Shatner stuff on
Shaw right?

So who are the Canadians band and folks who made it in US.

Joni Mitchell
Gordon Lightfoot
BTO
Guess Who
Bryan Adams (?? I think)
Neil Young
William Shatner (yep he did make an album LOL)
Leonard Cohen

Z

Obvious omission is Rush. personally I couldn't stand their music but they were big in the US.

Bob and Doug McKenzie: "Take Off! To the Great White North"

HelperGuy wrote:Bob and Doug McKenzie: "Take Off! To the Great White North"

When I was young I lived across the lake from Kingston Ontario in Oswego N.Y and I had a 14ft
TV antenna so I could pick up Global across the lake and watch SCTV long before it was on after
SNL on Sat nights in the US. Good book on SCTV was published by one of the cast members if
anyone is interesting.

Personally I preferred the fishin musician where they would blow up the artists. Or Slim Whitman
doing all of Joni Mitchells songs.

Z

seisdedos wrote:

Zedinmexico wrote:I suppose this CanCon rule is why we see so much William Shatner stuff on
Shaw right?

So who are the Canadians band and folks who made it in US.

Joni Mitchell
Gordon Lightfoot
BTO
Guess Who
Bryan Adams (?? I think)
Neil Young
William Shatner (yep he did make an album LOL)
Leonard Cohen

Z

Obvious omission is Rush. personally I couldn't stand their music but they were big in the US.

Yep I missed that one. I liked Leonard Cohen far more than Rush.

Z