The Monkees finally hit the big time. They score a recording contract and a national tour, and become a sensation. Even as they sell millions of records and play to packed concert halls, however, they struggle for artistic and creative freedom, co...
The guys went into the studio and recorded their follow-up album, entitled (unimaginatively by the label) More of the Monkees. Once again, there was tension between the guys and TPTB. The suits wanted to milk every dollar they could out of the project, so to start with, they had insisted on the album cover including a photo of the guys posing in some seriously square clothes that they had been signed to do a cross-promotion with a big department store. It meant big bucks, but it was crassly commercial and it added nothing to their street credibility as hip musicians seeking to be the voice of their generation.
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There were other factors on the downside of the ledger. TPTB had an unreasonable fetish for the gawdawful song that no Monkee would admit to having written, The Day We Fall In Love, and that ended up on the album, an abomination that sent Mike into a red hot fury and didn't best please Davy, who had to sing it. Davy was further mortified when he was also forced to sing their song called Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow) about a guy dating two women and telling them both that he loves them. This was the song that had so repelled Lynda when they were dating that it had doomed their relationship almost from the start, and the Monkees had agreed to retire it at Davy's request. Predictably, it elicited a similar reaction from Jan. Davy himself was angry and humiliated, as he felt he was being pimped out by TPTB far beyond what was required as the supposed heartthrob of the group.
More importantly, however, they were still clashing with regard to the use of studio musicians and outside writers contributing material for songs. One of the saving graces for the hired talent was another star turn put in by Micky in collaboration with the team who were becoming their favorite writers, King and Goffin, on a tune called Sometime In the Morning. It had been a Monkees tune, but they tweaked the lyrics and arrangements and accentuated even further Micky's sweetly ethereal vocals. It was a successful collaboration that made a good song sound sublime.
There were also some improvements over their first album. Mike got to produce two more of his self-penned songs — of particular note was the song called Mary Mary — a solid rock song that was catchy and memorable, and this time Peter got to sing lead on one of his tunes, a ditty about his ugly old Auntie Grizelda.
