[2022-11-18] Monkees "Headquarters" Super Deluxe Edition 4 CD + 7" single (Rhino)

Jason Michael · 30 May 2012

Currently only available from Rhino's Monkee store
The Monkees - Headquarters: Super Deluxe Edition

https://monkeesstore.warnermusic.com/en ... 83836.html

Quote:

"After completing our first tour as a four-piece band in late 1966, Nez perceptively remarked that, 'Pinocchio had become a real little boy.' By the end of March 1967, Pinocchio had actually become quite a cool little dude (if I do say so myself) with the completion of Headquarters, the first studio album that we had been allowed to create entirely amongst ourselves. Monkee music was great music. Terrific songs crafted by gifted writers and produced by skilled producers. But Headquarters will always hold a special place in my heart. I remember the camaraderie, the collaboration, the enthusiasm and the occasional creative angst. And I particularly remember lying on the floor behind my drumkit between takes eating sunflower seeds.” - Micky Dolenz
We're honoring the landmark recording’s 55th anniversary this year with an expansive new set that shows the genesis of the HEADQUARTERS project in full. It boasts 69 previously unreleased recordings, including the entire album newly mixed from the original multitrack elements which were resynched to create the best fidelity version of the album ever available. It also features the debut of backing tracks made for an abandoned Don Kirshner-led version of the album, as well as the band’s earliest surviving demos, plus recordings that would be completed in 2016 for The Monkees’ final studio album, GOOD TIMES!.
The creative journey that led to HEADQUARTERS unfolds chronologically on the new Super Deluxe Edition. It documents The Monkees’ struggle for artistic control with Don Kirshner, the group’s music supervisor. The group wanted to write and perform its own music, while Kirshner preferred to continue using outside songwriters and studio musicians to record backing tracks, with the band adding vocals later.
In January and February 1967, Kirshner oversaw sessions in New York where more than an album’s worth of backing tracks were recorded for the band’s planned third record. At the same time, in Hollywood, The Monkees – Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork – began recording songs with producer Chip Douglas. The Super Deluxe Edition includes the debut of the band’s earliest demos for “The Girl I Knew Somewhere” and “All Of Your Toys.” The band recorded them in January 1967 at Gold Star Studios to convince Kirshner the group should have more creative input.
Kirshner balked at the idea, and the showdown continued until late in February when he was dismissed from The Monkees’ project after unilaterally removing Nesmith’s “The Girl I Knew Somewhere” as the B-side on the band’s new single and replacing it with a different song. With Kirshner gone, the band quickly took creative control and began recording the album at RCA Victor Studios in Hollywood with Douglas producing (credited as Douglas Farthing Hatlelid).
While previous reissues like HEADQUARTERS SESSIONS (released by Rhino Handmade in 2000) have focused exclusively on The Monkees’ time in the studio, the new collection is the first to revisit the songs Kirshner planned to include on the album. The Super Deluxe Edition introduces 23 previously unreleased backing tracks from those sessions.
Many were recorded by producer Jeff Barry in New York early in 1967. They include several songs he wrote or co-wrote (“99 Pounds” and “Gotta Give It Time”), plus contributions from other songwriters, including two from Neil Diamond, who penned “Love To Love” and “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You.”
Along with selections from HEADQUARTERS SESSIONS, the new Super Deluxe Edition digs deep into the vault to uncover even more unheard outtakes from the band’s time in the studio in February and March 1967. The unreleased highlights from those sessions include “Detuned 12-Bar Jam,” an informal recording of Tom Paxton’s “The Last Thing On My Mind,” and different versions of album tracks, like “You Just May Be The One,” “Forget That Girl,” “No Time,” and more.
GRAMMY®-nominated producer/engineer, Andrew Sandoval compiled and remixed the audio and penned the detailed liner notes that accompany HEADQUARTERS: SUPER DELUXE EDITION. In them, he writes: “Rather than plunder the previous reissues...the entire three-month period surrounding the creation of Headquarters has been reexamined to offer a deeper view…The primary goal has not been modernizing or reinventing what is now a legendary work but rather presenting it in the best possible light.”
HEADQUARTERS: SUPER DELUXE EDITION contains 4 CDs and a 7” vinyl single with “All Of Your Toys” b/w “The Girl I Knew Somewhere.” Limited to 4,000 copies worldwide, the set will be released on November 18th, exclusively at Monkees.Com.

Quote:

4-CD Track Listing

Spoiler: show

Rokin Robin of Locksley · 20 Oct 2007

Eye bee inn !!

FYI, the previous year 2000 limited edition long out of print 3-CD Sessions version (which I did not get) is supposedly "mostly" non-vocal tracks. Multiple versions of instrumental backings, yada yada, various stages of development, that may be interesting to the super die-hards but less essential to the rest of us. But it did also include the rare mono LP version (with vocals). I found a website where I can listen to these Sessions tracks, working my way thru all 84 of them to see what they actually contain. Though they are still downloadable at Amazon for $56.

Jason Michael · 30 May 2012

Rokin Robin of Locksley wrote:

Eye bee inn !!

FYI, the previous 2003 limited edition long out of print 3-CD Sessions version (which I did not get) is supposedly "mostly" non-vocal tracks. Multiple versions of instrumental backings, yada yada, various stages of development, that may be interesting to the super die-hards but less essential to the rest of us. I found a website where I can listen to these Sessions tracks, working my way thru all 84 of them to see what they actually contain. Though they are still downloadable at Amazon for $56.

Yes, I have that set and it's as you say. Still worth having, but not at the price it goes for on the secondary market.

Jason Michael · 30 May 2012

A friend just sent this to me today. He must've sensed I was playing Headquarters.

Rokin Robin of Locksley · 20 Oct 2007

Having just run thru the 84 tracks on the earlier 3-CD "Headquarters Sessions" from 2000, eye count:

--17 mono tracks (with vocals) = the original mono LP 14 cuts + 3 leftovers
--17 other tracks with vocals of demos, sessions, alts, goofs
--5 tracks of talking = 1 talk + the 4 separate talk tracks of "Zilch"
--which leaves 45 instrumental only tracks = sessions or backing tracks in various stages

I had assumed that "Sessions" included everything including the kitchen sink, but by looking at the above tracks of this new super deluxe box, that ain't bee the case.

P.S. The whole "Sessions" set is also up on YouTube...

Stumpy Joe · **Joined:** 29 Apr 2014 **Posts:** 1537

I ordered this immediately when I saw the email the other day.

I just finished listening to the "Revolver" super deluxe box and was...maybe a little underwhelmed to the extent that both of the two "sessions" discs were only forty minutes long. As this is my first Beatles SD, I'm interpreting this as an indication that these boxes are primarily intended and created to be vinyl sets. Which is fine; both discs contain a lot of fascinating material, and maybe there's just not a huge amount of leftover studio material.

Still...when I saw the "Headquarters" email from Rhino the other morning, I could almost hear Andrew Sandoval telling Giles Martin, "Hold my beer."

[2022-11-18] Monkees "Headquarters" Super Deluxe Edition 4 CD + 7" single (Rhino)

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