MovieChat Forums > 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee (1969) Discussion > Break Down the Musical Walls...

Break Down the Musical Walls...

posted 19 years ago by Anarchitectual
2 replies | jump to latest

... seems to me to be the message of "33 1/3". The Monkees had been labeled "Bubble Gum" by the self-appointed guardians of Rock purity (aka Rolling Stone Magazine); in this special they tried to say "Yeah... so what?" and the resulting mix of Pop, R&B, Soul, Gospel, Country, Classical and RockNRoll from roots to cutting edge has never been matched. "Death to Labels.. on Musical Styles and on People" was the unspoken Mantra.

As with the feature film "Head", the Monkees were trying to embrace the avant-garde and it seemed for a while it was responding to their suit; Peter's departure at the end of the filming shattered that dream and the Pre-Fab Four (now Three) were doomed. Interestingly, Peter's fine song in "33 1/3", Do Not Ask For Love (Prithee), includes the passage:

Thou makest me free then soon thou makest demands on me
And I am not thy love, thou workest in me slavery.

Perhaps that sums up how he felt about the Monkees by December 1968?

It's a pity writers Art Fisher and Jack Good had such a powerful idea and then did not fully develop it. "33 1/3 RPM" relies too heavily, as Mickey Dolenz points out, on a theme that had already been explored in the feature film "Head"... the "manufactured image". A few jokes about that are great, such as the sign someone holds up during the "Listen to the Band" jam session "He's Really Playing This". But the theme of breaking down barriers (racial as well as musical... the cast is fully intergrated) should have been brought more forward. This could have been achieved largly through music... longer versions of some of the songs, paticularly the Mickey Dolenz/Julie Driscoll duet on "I'm A Believer", Peter's "Prithee" and Davy's "Strings of My Kite". Eliminating the whole Darwin bit and shortening the "evolution dance" sequence would also be a vast improvement.

Despite these flaws it is a moving and thought-provoking film with some really great free-form music.

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Rules are for those who lack the courage to live without them - Frank Lloyd Wright

[–] marntech 19 years ago

It is like 33.3 is an extension of Head, as Peter has said.

I love the music from this special, but overall as a TV Special it was way out there and only had a few interesting moments. Suchas Mike's song Nakend Persimmon and when the 50s stars (Little Richard, Jerry Lee, and Fats Domino) were jamming on stacked pianos.

Too bad the music is only available on b0otleg. I have read that most of the original masters were lost.

Have you considered posting on Monkeetalk.com or Monkeeland.com? It may be more a bit busier there.

[–] james_age 10 years ago

Mike's "Naked Persimmon", Davy's "A String For My Kite", Peter's harpsichord solo, and especially the entire group's "Listen to the Band" are my highlights.

The '50's musical numbers sounded good, and they put on a good show. But I couldn't get passed their late '60's hair styles. It could've been great if they truly looked the part with clean hair cuts and no sideburns (which they would've never considered). Just a minor gripe. There's about 15 - 20 good minutes in the tv special, in my opinion.