7. b>The MonkeesMore Of The Monkees

The Monkees were a big deal for me and I put that one down because I was thinking about how interested I am in the Brill Building and 1960 Broadway songwriter world as that’s where I first became aware of Neil Diamond, Carole King and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill. I started out listening to The Beatles and at that point people did write their own songs, but as The Monkees didn’t, it was like a door opening for me and I started thinking about who these people were and became fascinated with finding Carole King songs wherever I could. The Gerry Goffin/Carole King song ‘Sometime In the Morning’ on the record wasn’t a hit but which was always one of my favourites. I guess, unlike The Beatles who were so gigantically huge where every song was a hit, whether it was a single or not, you felt like everybody knew everything, whereas with The Monkees where there was ‘I’m A Believer’ and ‘(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone’, there were also these jewels like a Goffin/King songs here, and a really cool Neil Diamond song there, and I think looking back that was an introduction to something that would be endlessly interesting to me.