Was waiting for this! Before Eddie Hoh arrived in LA, he played in a nightclub band in Chicago called Robby and The Troubadours, the primary gig of which was six days a week for about 6 hours a night at a mobbed-up club called the Tony Paris Show Lounge on Rush Street. Ken Eto was their boss. Most of what they played was music for twisting (think Peppermint Twist) and this groove he sets here was pretty much exactly the speed and style of that band. The keyboard player in that band was Barry Goldberg.
I knew this song was going to be amazing especially from Eddie's incredible jazz drumming and from the horn section. I'm really impressed to learn the bass was played by Chip Douglas. I always assumed it was Carol Kaye, wow! Thank you so much for this insight. It's awesome.
"Peter Tork will likely have learned the song from Mose Allison’s Local Color and when the liberty of the studio sessions which produced Headquarters and Pisces Aquarius arrived they could explore any musical avenue that suited them, trying them out and trying them on for size. You only have to listen to the musical variety of the latter for proof of that. Chip Douglas told me that he recalled the idea to start playing around with ‘Parchman Farm’ came from Peter at a session in June ’67, no doubt because it’s a tough sounding, infectious little riff to play with, that sits up and begs for reinterpretation, to be remade as something new. Here’s an occasion where the newborn nature of The Monkees as a music making unit definitely worked in their favour - they took an idea and ran with it - and the groove that is ‘Goin’ Down’ developed from a jam at the ‘She Hangs Out’ session. At first just a funky little instrumental thing, with Tork and Nesmith on electric guitars, and the rhythm section of buddies Eddie Hoh on drums and Chip Douglas on bass. "
Okay, this record might be "plastic soul", but seriously how enjoyable is it!? And regardless of everything, Mickey's vocal is pretty damn impressive for a mainstream pop band from 1967. Great to also hear all the individual elements in isolation - great work guys - really enjoying your work on all these Monkees tracks! All the best, Terry, Australia.
When he was interviewed by Andrew Sandoval years ago, Peter said "Goin' Down" was the kind of song that only comes together when a group/act is working regularly in the studio. It's no accident that it occurred when Chip Douglas was at the helm and both he and "Fast" Eddie were anchoring the recordings. With all the demands being made of the Monkees - and their fame and the ego tricks that go along with it at a peak - it's astounding that the bed tracks for PAC&J were recorded in less than 10 days. They literally dropped the basic tracks for "Star Collector" and flew to Paris the next day. The Monkees' story is full of "what-ifs" but perhaps the biggest is what kind of recordings they could have made using the PAC&J model for later recordings. @Septyl - I assume the deconstruction of "Daydream Believer" will fall in the span of The Birds, The Bees and The Monkees?
Eddie's drums and Chip's bass are simply STELLAR performances!! In this song 🗣️ by the way, of course..with Micky's vocals. Easily one of my (if not the) favorite Monkees tracks
Great deconstruction, dude! This song always reminds me of "I Got A Woman", Micky's song in Monkees' shows in those years, it's like their own version :D
Been looking forward to this! One of my all time favorite Monkees tunes. Featured on the television show nearly 5 times! This little B-side was a powerhouse all its own. I’ve said in other comments that it always drove me nuts that it wasn’t included on Pisces where it would have fit in perfectly. I beat the hell out of the 45 single growing up. And now thanks to Septyl I finally get to hear the full length instrumental version that I longed for, as compared to the short snippet that was used in the episode “Monkees Paw” and always wished I had a full recording of.
@ RockinAllDay. You are correct. But I’m glad Love Is Only Sleeping stayed on. The one I think should have been bumped in favor of Goin Down was Hard To Believe. That one, while good, I think was better suited for Birds & Bees. Especially since it’s less of a group effort as compared to the other tracks on Pisces. And I mean come on, Goin Down opening Side 2 with Micky’s “sock it to me” would have been a brilliant start for the flip side of this classic album.
It sounds more solid and assured than his other studio bass work so it is probably Chip Douglas. I think Peter is playing the "chicken-scratch" guitar. The deconstruction highlights that there are two guitars in the mix. It sounds like Nez is probably playing his Gretsch 12-string and hitting more chords in the background.
