When I met Peter Tork, I told him Head was one of my favourite movies. Without missing a beat, he shoots back with "You have a deranged mind, my friend".
Peter plays the part of him getting slammed by the football player so automatically. The expression on his face, and him really getting clobbered. It is perfect. Priceless. I always enjoy watching that sequence. RIP Peter. Love you, man.
True story: I rented this movie from Blockbuster/Hollywood Video or some similar type video store in the late 90's and apparently returned it late. The next time I went to rent a movie I was standing at the checkout counter with a long line behind me and the person who was ringing me up said "Oh it looks like you have a late fee" I was like "I do?" They said "Yes, it was on a movie called Head" She said that trying not to grin and there were a few chuckles coming from behind me as well. Back then many video stores also had a beaded section where titles like Head meant something else. Not sure if this store had that section but man was I embarrassed. I just managed a nervous laugh and said "It was a Monkees movie!"
As a kid, my brother, me and a couple of cousins sought shade from the Oz heat in a Queensland cinema showing "Head". It was part of a double feature along with "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". We were all Monkees fans and weren't quite prepared for what was in store for us. We laughed from the moment we saw Micky lose his cool with the coke machine and as it got blown up. We didn't really have a clue what was going on, most of the film went right over our heads. As I matured and with subsequent viewings, I was able to understand and appreciate the subtexts of the film. It was probably too full on for Monkees fans and the general public when it was first released. To me the film deconstructed the band's manufactured image in a creative and at times, brutal way. It was an act of self-sabotage, albeit subconsciously. Nevertheless, I love the film with all its eccentricities. The film is all over the place but there are some great moments of societal critiques, indictment of the Vietnam War and withering use of satire. The soundtrack is fantastic and showcases all of the guys' talents, from Peter's "Do I Have to do This All Over Again?", Mike's "Circle Sky", Davy's "Daddy's Song" and of course, Micky's sublime "As We Go Along". Thanks for posting this, it's always interesting to discover what went on behind the scenes and the viewpoints of the players involved. RIP Mike, thanks for the musical legacy you've left for us all.
My band in the 90’s was called Head, as tribute to the movie. We played Porpoise Song occasionally. It was always fun to be introduced with, “Ladies and Gentleman, I proudly give you Head!”
@@LifeOnLombok It was wonderful Micky lived up to his reputation of being the nicest one out of all The Monkees. The only thing that was sad was Micky apologizing if we asked us to repeat a question and showing us his hearing aid. Other than that it was a wonderful amazing event.
@@davidbreen6335 I was very fortunate to meet Micky years ago in Canada when I was a teen. He was very nice, very smiley. I didn't realize he wears a hearing aid now. Not surprising though with decades of loud concerts and in-studio creating music. I appreciate his ability to keep going. I really like his version of Shiny Happy People that he recently put out. What do you think? 😊
I saw "Head" as a kid with my 2 sisters at a local army base in1968. We loved the Monkees TV show. The movie was so unlike the series, though, that we were thoroughly confused & disappointed. Oh, we laughed, found the songs tunefully captivating, & no doubt were mesmerized by the psychedelic imagery, but we didn't understand it, as it has no plot, at least one that's not revealed until the end of the film. Truly, it was ahead of its time. I've watched the film a few times over the years since, & like it because it IS so different. Even today, 5 decades later, it's stands out as unique, has some really cool songs, & remains both fun & fascinating, plus it captures the group as a whole on film for the last time. In 1968, the Monkees were on the cutting-edge totally!
You had to be a "Head" to understand it. If you were a "Head" you smoked pot. Thats what "Head" meant, that liberated your thinking and consciousness in your "head," by using pot, taking LSD or pscilocybin mushrooms. Most of us were artists and musicians.
@@satanlaffing Most of us saw it stoned, it made total sense. If you're a "Boomer" like me, the time that movie was made WAS a "horror show." We were napalming women and children and babies, we had NO right and no reason to be in Viet Nam. At home, blacks were being murdered wholesale by crooked police, anyone 18 or older was being drafted to go kill people we knew nothing about, and the far right were shouting that "commies" were everywhere. "Head" touched on all of that. It was only maybe a year or two later, I was forced to enlist in the US Navy or be drafted straight into the Marines. Marines went straight to "Nam" from boot camp; many never came back. But we did NOT have a politcal party trying to install a Russian asset as an American dictator, so, we still have internal forces trying to kill off Democracy here, so things aren't all that great now, but at least we don't have an active war for resources going on right now, and we are helping Ukraine survive at least....I guess Humanity is never going to wake up....
For me the thing that worked for Head was it had a dream - like quality. If you disregarded the need for a plot and just remembered how dreams can be disjointed, wild, and unusual then it could work.
@@_Peremalfait Well you got to know before hand what is going on, and in the beginning they tell you that this movie is disjointed. Granted for a mainstream audience I'm reminded of a line from a movie about dreams called "Waking Life" where a director makes a comment about two other directors talking about a movie the other made, and this film cost a million to make and he says "it's about a dream within a dream" and the other director goes "you just lost a million dollars." The film isn't going to work for everyone, but as a cult film which I heard it was, it can.
I love "Head!" It's so bizarre that it's charming. Now what this clip doesn't mention that the Monkees, Bob, and Jack all went to Jack's house, smoked a shitload of weed, and blurted out the first ideas that came into their heads while a tape recorder taped the entire thing. Jack and Bob wrote a script based on that tape, and thus "Head" was born!
Starting as a commercial enterprise, popularity came quickly to the Monkees and proved to be an empty achievement. Searching for meaning through self-awareness and true artistic creation they began to fill that void and "Head" assisted in breaking out of the broad, shallow box they had been packaged in. They found that happiness isn't achieved from riches or fame, but in seeking out the never-popular truth and discovering the strange purposes behind the formation of each individual soul. While subverting expectations and contradicting their producers, the Monkees became the very thing they were designed to not be: original - and- artists. (Again, against all odds, they released one of their best album in 2016 called "Good Times! ".)
Once you embrace the chaos of the movie... lack of the (then) television style cohesiveness... and (TV Executive required) laugh track, you start to realize what a gem of a movie "Head" really was.
It’s a specific taste - it’s part weirder shit from White Album, adult swim, absurdism, and Python + a healthy does of cheese. Part of the fun is not knowing what’s going to happen next
The movie was good, but the music was spectacular, it was their finest moment. It was some of the best music of the 60’s, and there was not a bad song there.
I am one who LOVES that movie. I tell my music-minded friends that HEAD is an underrated Cult gem. Upon first watch it's hard to get what is going on. But the second time I saw it, everything feel into place. Also, the soundtrack is just terrific. "Porpoise Song", "As We Go Along", and "Can You Dig It?" are amongst The Monkees best songs.
Jack is a truly unique talent. Anything...and i mean ANYTHING that dude says can be Oscar worthy! As for Head, it was the intro to the Monkees i never realized was the Monkees! I remember putting that record on from my dad's collection and thinking this is the strangest and most awesome music ive ever heard. It wasnt until 2 years ago that i realized it was the band that did it cuz that record was lost for 30+ years. I am SO glad i rediscovered this, because its like a missing puzzle piece to my life that was finally found decades later!❤
Doesn't really matter to me what anybody thinks or says. How or why things get made or don't, it's the end product. I love the movie and the music. I understand not everyone's cup of tea. I'll admit that it is a fascinating story to hear.
Watching Head now is awesome. It’s a time capsule. Not to mention it has some of my favorite Monkees songs in it. However, it also makes me a little angry knowing it was used to kill the Monkees. I have to wonder what would’ve happened if they would’ve made the one that “would’ve been as big a hit as Hard Days Night“.
the VH1 movie about the Monkees made it out like the Monkees and Jack Nicholson wrote the screenplay for Head while over indulging on cannabis. Bob Rafelson and Nicholson writing the screenplay while on acid really helped to explain a lot.
Head may not be better than A Hard Day's Night, but the soundtrack is better than Sgt. Pepper's. "I'd like a glass of cold gravy with a hair in it, please."
"Head" may have died a quick box-office death, but it did not vanish from theaters. After its 1968 release, the film continued to be shown for two years - mostly drive-ins and double bills (occasionally paired with "Yellow Submarine" and "Easy Rider"), but also family matinees that capitalized on the Monkees' Saturday morning TV revival during 1969-70.
"From the Producers who gave you Head". 😆 Should've stuck with the first script. I think by the end of their 1967 tour, they wanted to shed that dressed up early days look. Beatles boots etc. If you think about it, most bands did go for the psychedelic look in 1967. Beatles, The Stones.
Head was ten years ahead of its time. That was its problem. The techniques it employed were used extensively in the 1970s. The producers didn't know how to market it. IF you see the poster for it, it's just a closeup of a nerd with glasses looking at the viewer, with no context. That's it. There was no advertising for it. Kids thought it was going to be a movie version of their favorite tv show. What they got was a dark, edgy, cynical deconstruction of the Monkees, and the rest of the 60s. The young adults felt tricked when they were told the film was "edgy", and then the Monkees came on. To top it off, the Monkees wanted writing credits for the film, which is really just a collage of short disconnected scenes, and when they were refused writing credit, they boycotted the first day of filming; except for Peter. It cost the producers a tremendous amount of money, as they were renting the studio by the day. That caused Rafelson to become hostile to the group. Not a good atmosphere to make a film in. Peter Tork said that boycotting the first day of shooting was a mistake and would create that break with the producers, and he was right. Mike, Mickey and Davy felt that Peter let them down by not boycotting the shoot along with the rest of them. It was ultimately a pointless act, because the film bombed, and passed into obscurity. The film, however, is a success. It is a cynical view of the 60s and the 60s itself. Roger Ebert hated it and went into great detail denigrating the individual members of the group, which demonstrates what a pompous blowhard Ebert was, and is a better recommendation for this time capsule of the 60s than anything else I could mention.
So there's a subtle distinction between "the 60s and the 60s itself" ? Nice try, fartbrain. You used the "dark, cynical deconstruction" line earlier in your post, too. Maybe you should trademark it. Now go pound sand, Pauline Kael.
@@chiefscheider, there's a distinction between "a deconstruction of the 60s" and "the 60s itself". If you don't see a distinction, great. There's no need for name-calling of strangers on a comment board. Go do something constructive. It's 2022, seize the day!
Awesome interview and such but for the uninitiated who did not know that Micky and his colleagues made a movie called Head .... this title could be misleading.
IT WOULD BE GOOD IF MICKEY DOLENZ GOT TOGETHER WITH DAVID BYRNE AND TALKED ABOUT THE TALKING HEADS AND THE MONKEES MOVIE, "HEAD", AND THEN DID SOME LED ZEPPELIN COVER TUNES.
Judging from the comments here, people either love this film or absolutely loathe it (I'm in the former category, I adore it). That proves that the film succeeded in a certain way. Over fifty years later and people still have a passionate opinion about it. That's better than being lukewarm in my opinion.
right on. I think a lot of people just don't get it, it was the Monkees deconstructing themselves to distance themselves from their manufactured pop band image, had profound social commentary, poked fun at hollywood, had their best music and some fantastic surrealism, sadly it tanked. but love it or hate it means its good art. no one has no opinion about it.
It's not quite that simple to me. There are two ways to evaluate films, on an artistic merit and personal enjoyment merit. In both ways I'd call "Head" very good but not perfect.
I love that movie! No matter where you go or what you do, you end up stuck back in a box. Great music, Frank Zappa, Annette Funicello's fake tear, talking cow, boxing, cute guys. "Where there is choice, there is misery."
Speaking of run on a double bill. Saw Head at independent suburb theater in 1970. The 1st feature was Dean Martin as Matt Helm "The wrecking Crew" his "Easy going spy". 2'd run maybe a dollar for two films back then. Hindsight is 20/20 band should have asked for a more cohesive theme movie not a scattershot turned into a cult favorite now. Life goes on they made enough money on reunion tours to have a nice living.
I have never understood this movie. I just don't get Head! But I have had dear friends who are Monkees fans and I would of course buy the DVD at Christmas. I would always given them Head! But earlier versions of the DVD were pan-and-scan reproductions which was just terrible! Upon the re-release during the anniversary of the film I quickly made up for giving the bad Head by providing my friends with improved, high-resolution. Everyone could tell the difference between the good Head and bad Head. One sucked and one didn't suck!
I love the fact that Frank Zappa's part ended with him telling Davy that the youth of America needed him and the cow said yeah. It must have been a cash cow!
@@eargasm1072 Gotta love this movie. They made it with the intention of it bombing. It's now a cult classic along with The world's greatest singer and 200 Motels.
I was six, HUGE monkeys fan, begged my Mom to take us to the theater to see it. I think Peter summed it up perfectly "It's a movie for kids, they're not gonna dig it man". I had no idea what the hell was going on. Didn't make ANY sense. Didn't even like the songs. Only part that remains a memory was the jumping into the water and underwater footage. I thought that was cool.
Head was great, especially the opening where they jump off the bridge and get rescued by mermaids…. The Porpoise Song… tripping without the acid… but it helped 🤣
Hippy dippey ,but a good flick that reflects the Era. Worth a rewatch The bridge jump at end is interesting, as that bridge has been replaced and due for disassembly.
I would lump this movie in with other 60s surreal films, like Casino Royal, What,s New Pussycat? Barberella, Modesty Blaze, etc. I enjoy watching clips more than the whole movie at once. That's not meant as a cricitizism.
First saw/heard of Head back in the 90's at 2:00 am, with a flu or some bug. Being in that particular altered state made it such an absolute trip. Head was the film I had been waiting for. Up to that time, was wondering why can't there be movies not relying on a story line? Why can't we have random, non-sequitur tied together with really great visuals and music, yet find some unifying theme or message at the end? Basically, I don't wish to be spoon-fed. Let me discover it for myself. Just wish there could be more like it, explored more deeply.
You know, I loved the Monkees as individuals, and the songs they sang. As a kid, I only half-like their show, it was too zany and slap-stick for me. Something tells me I won't like the movie, but it's really hard to find now....
When I was 5 I traded 2 bobby sherman pictures and one davy jones picture with a cat to the highschool chick babysitter down the street from where we lived for a used monkeys album. When I was 9 i started guitar lessons. When I was 14 I got my first electric guitar. Now Im 58 and still not successful but I can play guitar though