This song has two versions. They have completely different arrangements. The backing vocals are completely different. The one I knew from the '80s revival has Mike singing, backed by either Micky or Boyce (I genuinely can't tell; I'm going to assume it's Micky). I just found out about this one this week. This one has Peter singing - Peter! - backed by Davy (and probably Mike, and maybe Micky mixed way in the back; it's hard to hear because this mix is made of mud).

The one that ended up on the show, with Mike singing lead, is by far the better version; the arrangement is much crisper and fuller. I suspect that this other one was a demo, someone trying Peter out just to see if he could do it; Peter's not a bad vocalist, but he's got a limited range, and this song pushes it. Put him up against Mike and Davy's impressive projection and it's easy to decide to put him in the backing track, holding a few notes. Put him against Micky and - ah, no. You can't. It's just not fair. Mike's got an authentic, rough-hewn sound, but he's got power behind it (and a Texas lilt); Davy's got precision and polish (and a Manchester accent); Micky's got pipes like an organ. How could Peter's merely decent voice stand up against that?

One of the reasons I think this is either a demo or an early take is that Peter makes several audible errors, and his phrasing sounds like he just got handed the sheet music an hour ago. Mike's version swings more. If I had to choose, as presumably someone (Kirshner? Rafaelson?) did, which one of these to polish in the studio and send out into the world, I'd've made the same choice they did (well, no, let's be honest, I'd have cut a version with Micky double-tracked against himself or with Davy backing and weighed that against the Mike version).

But - here this one is, having survived somehow. Here's Peter's naive vocal, mixed against Davy trying to make him look good, and that muddy mess in the back that's Mike (I'm pretty sure I can hear him specifically on at least one chorus) and maybe Micky, too, trying not to show off. Here's this much simpler hook, this more loping tempo. Here's what may be one of the few non-live versions of a Monkees track prior to Headquarters with all four of them present on the track. Here's poor Peter, the only one who isn't just playing a greatly simplified caricature of himself in the show, telling his audience: I'm not the person you have this image of in your head. I'm not just doing this for the money.

This is - I can't say "this is precious," because that phrase has taken on sarcastic baggage that this doesn't deserve. But it's the only word I can come up with. This is something rare, and maybe a little fragile, something that was discarded and got cruft on it and someone tried to make it right again because they saw the value in it. Here's Peter, singing lead for the first time, and it's not the ferocious, almost angry thing Mike made of it, or the dismissive, laughing thing Davy would have made of it, or the sharp-edged and glittering thing Micky would have made of it. It's vulnerable and a little breaky around the edges, and it makes me want to cry in a way that the commercial release doesn't.

Having heard it now, I am immensely glad this version survived.

On to three more shows :

Season 1 Disc 3 Episode 13: One Man Shy (aka Peter and the Debutante)

Ooo, it's a Peter episode! Is this the first Peter episode? I think it is. The plot is functionally identical to any given Davy episode - a Monkee falls for the girl who's hiring them for her party, her boyfriend proceeds to make trouble, the boys try to build up the one who's pining in various ways, the girl sees through it but likes the Monkee for who he really is, the Monkee proves his mettle and gets the girl (at least until the next episode). But making it Peter changes the tone of the episode completely; it's all about vulnerability. The major obstacle to be overcome isn't the snobby boyfriend; it's Peter's sense of inadequacy.

This is a fantastically strong episode. The other three boys get to do two different sets of impersonations on the boyfriend, plus one round up against him as themselves (and Micky gets to do Sigmund Freud), while Peter gets more dialog than I think he's gotten in the previous three episodes combined. The actress for the girlfriend actually gives the part some substance; we get what Peter sees in her. The jealous boyfriend does some delightful scenery-chewing, especially in the second romp, where Peter finally beats him at something (hopscotch, marbles, and arm-wrestling). It really holds up, even though the idea of a debutante really hasn't.

There's a scene where they're trying to teach Peter to play spin-the-bottle; it always ends up pointing at Davy, even when Mike sends him out of the room. Davy doesn't seem surprised at this.

Several of the fansites have suggested that the Peter-vocal version of "I Don't Think You Know Me" was originally supposed to be in one of the two musical sequences, probably the one that's actually occupied by "I'm a Believer." If so, it never stood a chance, sad as that makes me. "I'm a Believer" was their second-album juggernaut, and it appears in all three of the episodes I watched tonight; it had been released a few weeks before. Ask someone to sing a Monkees song other than the credits, and they will pick either "Clarksville" or one of the two Believers. (If they pick "Pleasant Valley Sunday," send me their phone number, stat!)


Season 1 Disc 3 Episode 14: Dance, Monkee, Dance

I am really conflicted about this one. It has some seriously problematic content. It's also a gut-bustingly funny episode - no big character development, but lots of good business. I want to like it, but problematic '60s crap is problematic.

There's a semi-villainous female character in this one. One of the major bits of problematic content is a scene in which Mike is charged with keeping her in one office; he ends up "confessing" his love for her (she convinced him to sign a contract earlier by kissing him, so this isn't completely out of the blue) - and then there's a comedic chase scene around her office. It's not really filmed all that differently from any other sped-up chase scene in the show, but I was uncomfortably aware that I was being asked to laugh at what was essentially sexual harassment, even if we know Mike didn't really mean it.

There's another scene where Micky realizes they need an idea for the plot to move forward, and actually walks off the set to the writer's room. So far, this is a pretty awesome gag - not only has he broken the fourth wall, he's actually walked through it. But the "writer's room" consists of four Asian guys in 19teens Chinese clothing at typewriters, and a tall white guy in a barbarian outfit with a whip, for no obvious reason. At least they don't talk to Micky in broken English (they don't speak at all; they each type something and then hand it to him), and that part of the gag is over quickly.

And there's comedic drag. Again. At least it's brief - one short scene with Peter in drag being yelled at by Micky, and one with Micky in drag being hit on by Peter (did no one catch the irony of that, with Mike chasing around Miss Buntwell in the previous scene?). Micky impersonates a lawyer twice (and gives his legal name - George Michael Dolenz - for the second one!), and there's a fantasy courtroom sequence with Mike as a hanging judge.

Other than those bits, it's a reasonably strong episode; it shows off Davy's dancing skills in a way that's fairly natural. Peter and Micky end up dancing with each other in the foreground of one scene and the background of another - that might be slash fodder later. The plot doesn't have any major holes in it, and Peter gets the end gag in a way that works remarkably well. There's a group of minor characters called the Dancing Smoothies; unfortunate language drift is unfortunate. A trivia site informs me that the inventor of Liquid Paper appears in a brief cameo in the episode (apparently Nesmith's mother was visiting the set).

Watching these in rapid succession makes some of the repeated sets annoyingly obvious. The dance studio office here is clearly the same as the toy company president's office back in Episode 3, and I think it's been someone else's office in between. The ballroom here is the same as the ballroom from Episode 1, and I think it's also been a discotheque.

This one has commentary by the director, but honestly, he doesn't say too much different from his commentary back on Disc 1. He does acknowledge that the writer's room gag is a touch racist, at least.


Season 1 Disc 3 Episode 15: Too Many Girls (aka Davy and Fern)

This one opens with the band rehearsing. That's actually the sound from the set, not a later overdub; by this point, the guys could play as an ensemble well enough to pull that off. Effectively, that means that someone had taught Micky to play drums by this point.

The opening sequence is everyone other than Davy having to remove a bevy of teenaged girls from the Pad; they've snuck in to see Davy, and he's too distracted to rehearse while they're there - he keeps going off into a starry-eyed daze. It's a wee bit sexist, but it's played with Davy as the butt of the joke, not the girls (and prompts the line "I, for one, am deeply jealous" from Micky; Peter will echo the line later in the episode).

Yet another female antagonist; this time it's a phony tea-leaf reader by the name of Mrs. Badderly. (I think the fraudulent-psychic-as-villainess shows up a few more times in the series, too; we've already seen one back in Episode 2.) Micky tosses off two gags implying that he might be able to read tea leaves and palms, too.

At one point, to keep him from leaving and chasing after the GotW, the other three Monkees chain Davy to a chair. He passes some time watching television - the show on ABC opposite them! Well, they're on, so what else can he watch, right? (Both shows were produced by the same studio, so presumably the rights were easy to secure.)

Later, the GotW (the Fern of the title) shows up wearing a bikini. Apparently someone at S&P thought that was inappropriate; she's blurred out below the neck throughout the whole scene. The first thing Davy says to her is "I think I love you;" Jones has a commentary on this episode, most of which is about mildly amusing stuff that happened during filming, but he interrupts himself at that line and says something like "Another thing David Cassidy got from me!"

Near the end, Peter utterly fails at doing a magic act (and is hauled off the stage in tears; boy, they sure have Peter cry a lot - tailor-made for fic, that), Micky does a hackneyed comedy routine that includes his Cagney impersonation (three times), and Mike portrays a hayseed folksinger doing "Different Drum"! (There's an alternate reality in which that is a Monkees song on one of the first two albums. I wonder if they gave it to Micky or Davy there? Probably Davy - and they probably slowed it down a lot.)

This episode doesn't quite hang together, but the bits it's assembled from are all good, and both Ms. Badderly and Fern feel like actual characters. This is probably the most solid block of three I've hit so far, even with all the problems in Episode 14.