I'm Listening To "Instant Replay"

What I'm listening to right now is the album "Instant Replay" by the Monkees.

By this time they were just Davy, Micky, and Mike. Peter was gone. But he is pictured, sort of, on the back cover, in a picture on a magazine cover.

The words "Instant Replay" were big words about that time, when instant replay started happening in sports. As I remember it they even flashed the words "Instant Replay" on the screen when they replayed what just happened. People talked about the "instant replays." And it really is a great thing. Because I'm off getting potato chips when there's a touchdown, the crowd is going wild, and I want to see it replayed a dozen times.

The album title, I don't know what it refers to exactly. Maybe nothing. It is realized on the cover by the many pictures repeated of the threesome individually.

The cover, it's nice. Except for Rhino's reissue they decided, without any explanation I've ever seen, to replace the three pictures in the middle with different pictures. The replacement pictures actually are quite a bit more attractive, but I still think it should look like it originally looked. That's just me.

As to my ownership of this album, I did not own it when it originally came out. I didn't personally own it for quite a while. But I used to look at it all the time at a store in my town. Things must've been different back then. When a record was in a store, it was there forever, or just short of forever. So I had many, many opportunities to go in there, pull it out of its place and look at it.

There were a couple reasons I didn't ever get it. The biggest reason was money. I was a kid without much money of my own. So for me to buy something was an enormous deal. When I bought the "Pisces, Aquarius" LP I had saved 444 pennies, which is what it cost with tax. The poor checkout person had to count that many pennies. Then there was another complication. Our record players weren't very good. We just had old crap. And on the "Pisces" LP I had a skip. Between you and me, it might've been the fault of our crappy record player. Regardless, I took it back and got my money back. So I didn't have that one either, originally.

The second reason I didn't get "Instant Replay" was more psychological, although with the requisite amount of money I might've overcome it. I had a problem with the group not having Peter in it. To me it was sad, like buying a three legged chair. It was a hangup of sorts, I suppose.

So I also didn't originally have "Present," or "Changes."* My original LPs were the second album, then the first, in that order, then "Headquarters." I got "Birds, Bees." I bought it at the same store referred to above. I was looking at the "Advertiser" newspaper and it was on sale for $2.99. I must've had the money somehow because I bought it for $2.99 plus tax. And I got the "Head" soundtrack as a Christmas present in 1968, along with the "Hey Jude" 45.

My wife owned the "Instant Replay" album, so that's how one first came into my family, when we got married. She had the other albums I had too, and of course she had the "Pisces" album too. But she never had the "Present" or "Changes" albums.

About "Instant Replay," I've read that it's a hodgepodge of leftover tracks. To me it's always been a sad sounding album, with a theme like "We're going away. Goodbye." This is especially noticeable in the song "You and I." The theme might just be my imagination.

The Monkees' "Birds and Bees" album is coming out as a deluxe edition, 3 CDs. I have one ordered. I hope I get it. It was more than $2.99! But I'm sure it'll be worth every penny.

*I never even saw "Present" in the stores. So I didn't know about it at the time. As for "Changes," I saw maybe 20 copies in the store, but didn't get it. I wish I would've. I never got "Present" till around 1982, at which time I bought one at a record show for $25. As for "Changes," I bought it somewhere, maybe through Goldmine magazine for something like $60. Later I (stupidly) sold it, but I must've needed the money. So it's the only Colgems LP out of the original 9 that I don't have. I have a Rhino reissue of "Changes" that, last time I played it, it skipped too. I might want to retry it because I have a newer record player now. In 1970 or 1971, whenever it came out, I saw the "Barrelfull of Monkees" LPs at a store, but again I didn't get it.