Monkees – "Words" (1967)

Words with lies inside

But small enough to hide

Till your playin’ was through

I recently had the pleasure of reconnecting with Brienne Walsh, who’s an old friend of 2 or 3 lines.

Those of you have been reading my wildly popular little blog for a long time know all about Brienne.  But if you’re relatively new to 2 or 3 lines, you may want to click here, and then click here, and then click here, and then click here.

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Brienne holds nothing back in her blog, A Brie Grows in Brooklyn.  She is less guilty of self-censorship than any writer I know – including myself.  I leave a lot out of 2 or 3 lines because I worry about what others would think about me if I revealed more about myself, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for Brienne.  She’s much braver than I am.

Brienne Walsh

Brienne’s honesty is not the only reason to read A Brie Grows in Brooklyn.  Brienne is smart and thoughtful, and her writing is often very, very funny – but what sets her apart from anyone else I know is that honesty.  

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Brienne and I spoke last week because she is writing an article about online dating, and she wanted to interview me about my experiences on one particular dating website last year.  

When the article comes out, it will be interesting to see if she was able to use anything from our conversation.  (As is my wont, I subjected her to a tsunami of personal anecdotes, most of which were probably not germane to her writing assignment in the least.)

I seriously doubt that I will share her article with my friends and family.  As I noted above, I’m not as brave as Brienne is – I hold a lot back.

Maybe the real problem is that I do a lot of things that I have good reason to hold back.  If I cleaned my act up, maybe I’d feel less inhibited when it comes to revealing myself in my writing.

(Fat chance of that happening . . .) 

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Today’s featured song was written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart – a great songwriting team best known for “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight,” one of the best truly great pop records of the sixties.

“Words” was originally recorded by the Leaves in 1966 and released on their Hey Joe album.  The Monkees covered it the next year.

The original Monkees recording of “Words” featured a number of session musicians – all that the Monkees contributed to that version were the vocals.

The group was allowed to play their instruments on a second recording of the song, which reached #11 on the Billboard “Hot 100” later that year.

I don’t know how I missed “Words,” which I don’t remember ever hearing until recently.  It is a GREAT record – unlike any other record of that era that I’m familiar with.

Click here to hear the first version of “Words,” which I prefer.

Click here to buy that recording from Amazon.

 

Monkees – "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" (1966)

The clothes you’re wearing, girl 

They’re causing public scenes

The above lines from today’s featured song weren’t inspired by the dress that actress-singer-model Jane Birkin is wearing in this photo, but they might have been:

Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin

By the way, Jane Birkin is not carrying an example of the handmade and very expensive leather weekend bag that Hermès named for her in that photo.   (My trivia team was shocked when I was able to answer a tricky question about the Birkin bag a few months ago.  They shouldn’t have been.)

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A few years before her death, Bonnie Parker gave a handwritten poem titled “Trail's End” to her mother.  That poem – which became known as “The Story of Bonnie and Clyde” – is the source of the lyrics for Serge Gainsbourg’s 1967 song, “Bonnie and Clyde.” 

Serge Gainbourg – who was one of the most popular and influential French popular music figures of all time – also wrote the infamous “Je t'aime . . . moi non plus.” (That title is usually rendered in English as “I Love You . . . Me Neither.”)  It features very explicit lyrics and ends with the sounds of a woman simulating an orgasm.

Gainsbourg recorded both songs with his then-current girlfriend, Brigitte Bardot.  (The recording engineer reported “heavy petting” by the couple during the recording session.) 

Bardot (who was married at the time to a German businessman) begged Gainsbourg not to release “Je t'aime.”  He later re-recorded it with a new girlfriend, English actress Jane Birkin.  That record was a big hit, although it was banned from the radio in several countries (including Sweden, of all places).

Birkin’s simulation of orgasm on the record was very enthusiastic, and there was a rumor that the couple had been having sex during the recording of the song.  

Gainsbourg denied the rumor, quipping that “it would have been a long-playing record” instead of a single if that had been the case.  (Typical Frenchman.)

Click here to listen to the Gainsbourg-Birkin version of “Je t'aime.”

Click here to watch a video of of Gainsbourg and Bardot singing “Bonnie and Clyde.”  The duo perform the song in a very understated manner, while every so often a guy makes a weird whoop-whoop sound in the background – I have no idea what the hell it means, but the whole thing is très, très cool.

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Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart were a great pop songwriting team.  “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” is possibly the second-best song they ever wrote.  (“I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight” – which was a top ten hit in 1968 – is without a doubt their best song.)

Paul Revere and the Raiders recorded “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” for their fifth studio album, Midnight Ride, which was released in May 1966.

The Monkees recorded the song as the B-side of “I’m a Believer” (which became their second #1 single) later that year.  It did very well for a B-side, peaking at the #20 spot on the Billboard “Hot 100.”

Click here to watch the Monkees pretending to perform “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.”  Lead singer Mickey Dolenz is the only Monkee who took part in the recording of that song – all the instruments you hear on the record were played by studio musicians.

Click here to buy the record from Amazon.

Monkees – "I'm a Believer" (1966)

Love was out to get me

That's the way it seemed

Disappointment haunted all my dreams

Fifty years ago today, I was a ninth-grader at South Junior High in Joplin, Missouri.

Every Monday afternoon, WHB in Kansas City – 710 on your AM dial – played their new top 40 singles in reverse order.  I turned the radio on as soon as I got home from school and followed the countdown closely, calling a friend of mine during the five-minute news break at the top of each hour to discuss the records played in the previous hour.   

Fifty years ago today, “I’m a Believer” sat atop the Billboard “Hot 100.”  I’m guessing it sat atop the WHB top 40 list as well.

“I’m a Believer” ascended to the #1 spot in the last “Hot 100” chart of 1966, and remained at #1 for seven consecutive weeks.  It was also a #1 hit in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, and the UK.

The B-side of “I’m a Believer” was “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” which made it to #20 at the same time that “I’m a Believer” was the #1 song in the U.S.

The Monkees

“I’m a Believer” was written and originally recorded by Neil Diamond.  It was released on his second studio album, Just for You, along with several other hit songs, including “Cherry Cherry,” “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” “Solitary Man,” and “Thank the Lord for the Night Time.”

The arrangement of Diamond’s original recording is quite similar to arrangement used for the Monkees’ version.  (Both records were produced by Jeff Barry, who was married to Ellie Greenwich.  Together, they were one of the greatest husband-wife songwriting teams ever.)

Diamond wrote some additional lyrics and re-recorded the song in 1979.  That version of the song is HORRIBLE:

If not for “I’m a Believer,” the Royal Guardsmen’s “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron” would have been a #1 record.  Instead, that record made it only to the #2 spot on the “Hot 100” chart.  It remained there for four weeks.

This year's “28 Songs in 28 Days” will feature songs that were listed in the Billboard “Hot 100” chart in February 1967.  Most of those featured songs are pop classics by groups like the Monkees, Mamas and Papas, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Sonny and Cher, and other pop superstars.  But we'll also showcase some one-hit wonders and novelty songs you've probably forgotten about.

Here’s the most popular record from February 1967 and the biggest-selling single of that entire year . . . “I’m a Believer”:


Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Monkees – "Last Train to Clarksville" (1966)

'Cause I'm leavin' in the morning

And I must see you again

The focus of the recent 2 or 3 lines "Tour de Missouri" was four days of bike rides on the Katy Trail, a recreational rail trail that follows the right-of-way of the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas ("M-K-T") Railroad in central Missouri.  (That railroad's stock exchange symbol was KT -- so it was commonly referred to as the "Katy.")

The Katy linked St. Louis, Kansas City, Joplin, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and Galveston.  It didn't pass through Clarksville, Arkansas, or Clarksville, Missouri, or Clarksville, Texas, or any other Clarksville – so the "Last Train to Clarksville" was not a Katy train.

A Katy Trail sign (Augusta, MO)

The Katy Trail follows the M-K-T's main line from suburban St. Louis to Clinton, Missouri, a small city southeast of Kansas City.  It's 240 miles long, which makes it the longest rail trail in the United States.

I described day one of the "Tour de Missouri" in the previous 2 or 3 lines.  It went relatively smoothly, but day two of the journey had a number of ups and downs.  

After spending the first night of the trip with friends in a suburb of St. Louis, I rose early the next morning and headed for Augusta, Missouri (population 253), to rent a bike for my second day's ride.

But the Augusta bike rental store wasn't open when I arrived at about 11 AM on a Tuesday.  

So I called the bike rental place in Defiance, which is about seven miles east of Augusta.  (Both businesses have the same owner.)  

Katy Bike Rentals (Defiance, MO)

The guy in charge of the Defiance store told me that the guy who ran the Augusta store usually didn't open until 4 PM on Tuesdays.  (If that was true, I'm not sure why he bothered opening on Tuesdays at all.)

I drove to Defiance on Missouri Route 94, a scenic highway that parallels the Missouri River.

Route 94 detour signs

Unfortunately, it had rained heavily the day before, and parts of Route 94 were under water.  So I had to take a long and winding detour to get to my destination.

Route 94: open for boats, but not for cars

When I finally arrived in Defiance, I got into my bike shorts and shirt, picked out a hybrid bike, and headed west along the trail.

But after riding about a mile, the bicycle's stem – the part that clamps on to the handlebars – became loose, which meant the handlebars were free to rotate forward and backward and to slide left and right while I was trying to ride:

I tried to keep the handlebars in place while riding back to Defiance for repairs, but it was impossible.  It looked like I was in for a long walk back to the bike shop to get the stem tightened.

But I was lucky.  I saw a biker going in the other direction shortly after I started walking, and flagged him down.  He had the tool I needed to tighten the stem and continue my trip without further delay.

A few miles west of Defiance, I saw a sign for the "Daniel Boone Judgment Tree Memorial."  

Boone, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1734, moved from Kentucky to Missouri in 1799.  What later became the Louisiana Territory was owned at that time by the Spanish.  

The famous frontiersman was granted 850 acres by the Spanish government and appointed to hear disputes between other settlers and issue judgments to settle those disputes.  He held court under a large tree on his son Nathan's land.  

In 1820, Boone died at Nathan's house in Defiance, which is open to the public today:

The Nathan Boone Home (Defiance, MO)

I biked west until I reached Dutzow, a small town that was settled by German immigrants in the 1830s:

Dutzow, MO

After quaffing a couple of bottles of V8 juice, I turned east and headed back to Defiance.

The area between Defiance and Dutzow is home to several wineries:

I had planned to stop on the return trip to have a beer at the Augusta Brew Haus, a microbrewery that gets good reviews and is located right on the trail.  

But it appears that the owners of that microbrewery are Third-Day Adventists, because it was closed.

That's a shame, because the list of beers on tap looked pretty good:

I was plenty thirsty when I finally made it back to Defiance.  (I had ridden about 30 miles altogether, which is nothing special, but is longer than I usually ride.)  

After chastising the bike-rental guy for not making sure my bike stem was tightened before renting me a bike, I headed to a dive bar across the street and had a pint of Faust, a Vienna-style lager brewed by Anheuser-Busch and sold only in the St. Louis area.  (Faust was originally brewed by Augustus Busch in 1884 for his friend Tony Faust, who owned a famous St. Louis restaurant.)

Speaking of the "Show-Me State," did you know that no state borders more other states than Missouri?  

One of the eight states that Missouri touches is Tennessee. (The others are Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.)

Missouri borders eight states

I guessing almost all of you could name Tennessee's two largest cities – Memphis and Nashville.  

Some of you will also know the next two biggest cities in the "Volunteer State" – Knoxville and Chattanooga.

But I'm betting that not a single one of you knew that the next biggest city in Tennessee is Clarksville, which is home to about 136,000 souls.

Tennessee borders eight states as well

A lot of people think that "Last Train to Clarksville" – the Monkees' first hit single – is about Clarksville, Tennessee.  

But Bobby Hart (who co-wrote the song and co-produced the record with Tommy Boyce) has said that "Last Train to Clarksville" has nothing to do with Tennessee's Clarksville.

Boyce and Hart also wrote "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" and "Valleri" for the Monkees, "Come a Little Bit Closer" for Jay and the Americans, and a number of other songs.

Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart

But they saved their best song for themselves:  "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight," which was a top ten hit single for Boyce and Hart in 1968, is one of the best three-minute pop songs ever.

Click here to read what 2 or 3 lines had to say about that song.

Speaking of "Last Train to Clarksville," it was popular in the fall when I was in 9th-grade.  I was one of three student managers for my junior high school's undefeated basketball team.  (If I had gone to a junior high with a crappy team, I might have actually made the team rather than having to settle for keeping stats.)

One of the other managers was a guy named Bob.  Bob and I persuaded the third student manager that Bob had written the words to "Last Train to Clarksville."  (As I recall, we claimed that the Monkees had stolen the song.)   

Here's "Last Train to Clarksville," which clearly was influenced by the Beatles' "Paperback Writer":

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Go Home Productions -- "Paperback Believer" (2007)

It's a thousand pages, give or take a few

I'll be writing more in a week or two

Mark Twain produced many, many pithy aphorisms.  But he didn't write many of the most famous sayings that are attributed to him.

Mark Twain

Here are a few famous Mark Twain quotes that Mark Twain apparently never said:

-- "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

-- "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."

-- "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."

The lines from "Paperback Writer" that are quoted above remind me of another quote that Twain is often given credit for, but which is actually derived from something that the French philosopher Blaine Pascal wrote:

-- "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time"

(That's "Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte" in the original French.)

Most mashups combine dissimilar musical tracks.  But this Go Home Productions track, which is on the album This Was Pop (2002-2007), combines contemporaneous songs from the same genre -- in this case, the 1966 Beatles' hit single, "Paperback Writer" and the Monkees' hit from the same year, "I'm a Believer."

The two songs mesh together almost perfectly -- the mashup sounds like one song rather than a combination of two songs.  It's easy to imagine the Beatles and the Monkees (or more likely a couple of tribute bands) performing this mashup live.  

Mark Vidler, the brains behind
Go Home Productions

Mark Vidler of Go Home Productions must have a thing about "Paperback Writer."  He producer another mashup that combines the lyrics to "Paperback Writer" with the instrumental track of a different hit single -- the Knack's "My Sharona."  

Here's "My Paperback Sharona":

And here's "Paperback Believer":

Click here and you'll be taken to the Go Home Productions website, where you can download both these songs (and many, many more) for free.  (Don't be afraid, boys and girls -- nothing bad is going to happen to your computer!)

Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart -- "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" (1968)

But I tell myself I didn't lose her

'Cause you can't lose a friend you never had

There's a lot I don't get about the way teenagers are today.  But there was a lot I didn't get about the way teenagers were when I was a teenager.

What the hell is going on in this song?  It begins with the singer (a male) telling a girl that he doesn't love her – that he just wants to be her friend:

If I had told her that I loved her

She would have stayed 'til who knows when

But I guess she couldn't understand it

When I said I want to be your friend

It seems that the girl reacted to his statement by going out with another guy – motivated (at least in the boy's mind) primarily by a desire for revenge.  In the singer's mind, this constitutes a betrayal, and they aren't friends any more:

I tell myself I didn't lose her

'Cause you can't lose a friend you never had

'Cause a friend won't say it's over

And go out just for spite

And now I wonder what she's doing tonight

But he was the one who said it was over – not her.  And why would he give a rat's ass what she's doing tonight anyway?  After all, he doesn't love her – he just wants to be friends. 

Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart

I don't get it.  (Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.)

This assumes that there is something to get, of course – a risky assumption when it comes to pop lyrics.  

I could give you example after example of perfect pop songs that have trite and simplistic lyrics, or have lyrics that make no sense at all.  And you know something?  It doesn't matter!  They are still perfect pop songs!

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The 300 or so songs that Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart wrote together sold more than 42 million records.  The partnership wrote songs for Chubby Checker, Jay and the Americans ("Come a Little Bit Closer"), and Paul Revere and the Raiders.  They also wrote the theme songs for Dick Clark's "Where the Action Is" variety show (which was a hit for Freddy Cannon) and the long-running soap opera, Days of Our Lives.  

But Boyce and Hart are best known for the songs they wrote for the Monkees – 22 altogether, including "Last Train to Clarksville," "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" (originally recorded by Paul Revere and the Raiders), "Valleri," and the theme song from the Monkees' TV series.  ("Hey, hey, we're the Monkees!")

(A little-known fact about "Last Train to Clarksville": when I was one of the three student managers for my junior high school's undefeated 9th-grade basketball team, one of my fellow student managers and I persuaded the third manager that we had written "Last Train to Clarksville," which was a #1 hit single at the time.)

But Boyce and Hart saved their very best song for themselves.  "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" (which appeared on the album I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite) was a top ten hit for the duo in 1968.  If there was any justice in this world, it would have reached #1 – it's that good a song.

I think the best moment in any sixties pop song ever recorded is when Bobby says "Come on, now!" after Tommy sings the lines quoted above.  That feels like an ad lib – like Bobby is so caught up in the musical moment that he just can't control his excitement.  But that apparent ad lib was probably carefully planned and executed.

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I just read a wonderful history of pop music in Los Angeles titled Waiting for the Sun, by British author Barney Hoskyns.  Hoskyns believes the difference between the music "scenes" in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the sixties is obvious:  San Francisco had a rock sensibility and Los Angeles had a pop sensibility.

The NoCal types thought the SoCal types were phony and plastic – the Monkees (a/k/a/ the "Pre-Fab Four") were the symbol of all that was wrong with the Los Angeles scene.  But the SoCal types expressed their distaste with NoCal's holier-than-thou self-righteous attitude and hippie "style" (or the lack thereof).

Surprisingly, most of the real crazies of the era defended Los Angeles.  Frank Zappa observed that everyone in San Francisco dressed the same way – in Los Angeles, the freaks were much freakier.  Andy Warhol and his posse also preferred the isolated degenerates of Los Angeles to the hippie communitarians of San Francisco: "If you didn't smile a lot in San Francisco," said Paul Morrissey, the Warhol collaborator who discovered the Velvet Underground, "they got very hostile."

Brian Jones and Jimi Hendrix at Monterey Pop

The famous Monterey Pop Festival, which took place in June 1967, brought some quintessential Los Angeles and San Francisco groups together.  From SoCal, you had the Mamas and Papas, the Byrds, Johnny Rivers, the Association, and Lou Rawls.  (Lou Rawls?)  From NoCal, you had the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company (featuring Janis Joplin), and Moby Grape, among others. 

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The Monkees were not invited to play at Monterey Pop, although Mickey Dolenz and Peter Tork both attended.  (Tork actually introduced the Buffalo Springfield.)  The Monkees took a sharp turn musically after Monterey Pop – their next album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd., featured a Moog synthesizer, which was introduced to the pop music industry at Monterey Pop.  

(In case you're curious, Mickey Dolenz was a Pisces, Peter Tork was an Aquarius, and Michael Nesmith was a Capricorn.  Davy Jones was also a Capricorn.  In fact, both he and Nesmith were born on December 30.  By the way, did you know that if there are 23 people in a room, it's more likely than not that two of them will have the same birthday?  Of course, there aren't 23 people in the Monkees.)

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Guess who opened for the Monkees on their U.S. tour that kicked off in Jacksonville, Florida, on July 8 – less than three weeks after the Monterey Pop Festival?

None other than the star of Monterey Pop, Jimi Hendrix.  That's right, boys and girls – Jimi Hendrix touring with the Monkees.  Imagine that!

The odd coupling actually made sense for both parties.  Hendrix had become something of a star in the UK by this time, but was largely unheard of in the U.S.  His management wanted to cash in on the notoriety he gained by setting his guitar on fire while performing "Wild Thing" at Monterey Pop – and who was going to draw bigger audiences in the summer of 1967 than the Monkees?

The Monkees wanted to prove to the world that they deserved to be taken seriously as musicians, and there was probably no other opening act they could have chosen who had more critical credibility than the cutting-edge Hendrix.

Hendrix appeared with the Monkees seven times in nine days – he made way for other opening acts after he and the Monkees did three shows at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium on July 14, 15, and 16, 1967.

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Boyce and Hart released three albums.  (The third one was released in Canada under the name Which One's Boyce and Which One's Hart?)  They had a couple of other Top 40 hits, and appeared on episodes of a number of popular sixties sitcoms.

Click here to see them on I Dream of Jeannie.  (Yes, boys and girls, that's legendary record producer Phil Spector playing himself in that clip.)

In the mid-seventies, Boyce and Hart teamed up with Mickey Dolenz and Davy Jones and went on the road to perform Monkees songs as Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart.  (Catchy, no?)

Hart was nominated for an Oscar in 1983 for the song "Over You," which was featured on the soundtrack of the Robert Duvall movie, Tender Mercies.  

After living in the UK for a few years, Boyce returned to the U.S., where he suffered from depression and had a brain aneurysm.  He committed suicide in 1994, when he was 55 years old.   

Click here to see Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart lip-synching (badly – really badly) "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" on an episode of The Hollywood Palace variety show.  Their host is Herb Alpert (of Tijuana Brass fame). 

Click on the link below to order the song from Amazon:

Monkees -- "Pleasant Valley Sunday"

See Mrs. Gray, she's proud today 

Because her roses are in bloom 

And Mr. Green, he's so serene

He's got a TV in every room 

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday 

Here in status-symbol land 

You know who Carole King is, of course.  (Her 1971 album, Tapestry, was the biggest-selling album of all time by a solo artist until Michael Jackson's Thriller came along in 1982.)

You may not be familiar with her songwriting partner and ex-husband, Gerry Goffin.  They wrote about a dozen top 10 hits (four went to #1) in the 1960s, including "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," "Go Away, Little Girl," "Up on the Roof," "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," and "Pleasant Valley Sunday" (a #3 hit for the Monkees in 1967). 

The song's title was inspired by Pleasant Valley Way, a street in the New York City suburb of West Orange, New Jersey.  King and Goffin had moved from Brooklyn to West Orange shortly before they penned "Pleasant Valley Sunday."  (The couple had met at Queens College, where their friends included Paul Simon and Neil Sedaka.)  King remained in the West Orange house after she and Goffin divorced, and that is where she wrote most of Tapestry.

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The Monkees were never taken seriously as musicians, which isn't really fair.  It is true that the band's members were chosen more on the basis of their potential to become TV stars than their musical abilities, and it's true that they didn't write any of their big hits.  

The Pre-Fab Four

But while a number of well-known studio musicians (including Glen Campbell, Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Buddy Miles, and Lowell George) contributed to the Monkees' records, the "Pre-Fab Four" played as well.  And the Monkees proved to be a perfectly competent live band when they went on tour.

The Monkees' star set as quickly as it had risen.  The group had six singles that made it to #1, #2, or #3 on the Billboard pop charts in 1966-68, but only a couple of their subsequent records even cracked the top 50.

Their TV series (which was created by young filmmakers Bob Rafaelson and Bert Schneider, whose production company was responsible for Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces -- Jack Nicholson's first great starring role -- and The Last Picture Show) was canceled in 1968 after only two seasons.

"Pleasant Valley Sunday" looks at suburban life with a jaundiced eye -- it was the sixties, not the fifties, after all, and it was de rigeur to trash the 'burbs.  

But life in Pleasant Valley doesn't sound all that bad.  If Carole King and Gerry Goffin hated it so much, they should have moved back to Brooklyn.

Most sources say that the distinctive guitar riff in the song was modeled after the one in the Beatles' "I Want to Tell You," but it sounds quite a bit like "Paperback Writer" to me.  I also have to think that Grand Funk's "Closer to Home (I'm Your Captain)" was influenced by "Pleasant Valley Sunday."

Here's "Pleasant Valley Sunday":

Here's a link you can use to buy the song from Amazon: