This Month's Colgems Upload - The Birds, the Bees and the Monkees (Stereo)

Here is this month's Colgems upload, the stereo version of "The Birds, the Bees and the Monkees. Although this upload will certainly garner less discussion than the mono version of this album, the LP is not without its talking points.

As the first and only Monkees album to have "one foot in, one foot out" of the series--and consequently, the first Monkees album not to hit No. 1--the record is probably the most schizophrenic of all Monkees releases.

You have both the inspired and uninspired, all on one LP.

Among the inspired tunes are "Auntie's Municipal Court," one of the group's most underrated offerings and with a great vocal by Micky Dolenz; "Tapioca Tundra," Mike Nesmith's tour de force about nothing; "Daydream Believer," one of the best of all the Monkees singles; "P.O. Box 9847," a Boyce and Hart gem; "Magnolia Simms," a clever tune with the first planned "scratch" in pop history; "Valleri," I know a lot of people hate this record, but it still sounds great, even though this album features its worst version; and "Zor and Zam," a great anti-war tune.

Everything else seems to wallow about, in particular the Davy Jones tunes.

But the biggest mistake is Nesmith's "Writing Wrongs"; with other inspired stuff here, what exactly was he thinking?

And, where is Peter Tork on this album? Sure, he is there instrumentally, but the strides he took on "Headquarters" seem to be forgotten forever on the next two releases, including this one.

You can access this album at http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/albumania/

Anyway, Tork is allowed to return to form on the next release, and the group has perhaps their biggest musical triumph amidst a total disaster.

More next month.