In the monkees I recall a lot of bittersweet, snark, heartbreak, revenge, regret, social comment, etc in there. After all, they were modeled on the other band we are talking about.
What are the positive, joyful monkees songs? What are the danceable ones?
Good tune man!
In music, ‘joyous’ and ‘danceable’ are 2 entirely different things. ‘Paranoid’ by Black Sabbath and ‘Louie Louie’ by the Kingsmen are extremely danceable, but they’re not joyous. In fact they’re almost hateful.
As I’ve already said, The Beatles are one of my favourite bands. To say that they did not write joyous music is absolutely not a disparaging comment. John Lennon was a very dark individual and you just would not expect it from him. If anything, as the OP hints, a band or composer is often taken less seriously if they write music that is joyous and unalloyed by any sort of irony or detachment or other type of passion.
As regards my comments about dancing, I speak as someone who is seen as a good dancer and amateur DJ. I find it intriguing that music I like so much is so unsuitable for the dance floor. For example the rhythm of ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ is far too fast to dance well to compared with eg ‘The Last Time’ by the Stones, and it’s not an isolated example. I find it very interesting that they chose to compose their music in this way.
I won’t say they are better than the Beatles but the first two record albums I ever owned were Monkees albums (my brother had given them to me) and I played the hell out of them as a kid. I still like their music to this day.
I’m not finding fault, just noting the irony that we are discussing a band who were very original (and known for bringing ecsatic joy to the world) and one that was actually created to imitate the success of this other group. So no matter how much we all love the monkees, distinctions between them in the monkees favor are always going to be questioned.
There is a word for things that are free of pain and concern: vacuous. But I don’t think the monkees were that at all. And the tempos of the monkees songs couldn’t have been all that distinct from the beatles could they? Nobody has pointed out the great monkees dance tracks that stand out any more than any one else’s; or the unalloyed unclouded joy in other ones. None of that was part of the plan. It was to ape the beatles success as closely as possible.
I don’t know how you dance but I disagree with you about the last time and I wanna be… Last time, (a song I love) on reflection now, is kind of slow, a foxtrot or minuet. Doesn’t strike me as a floor filler at all. More like a finger snapper. As for I wanna be your man: doesn’t the hard days night scene say it all?
I’ll give you a good one for the monkees: Tomorrow’s gonna be another day by Boyce and Hart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1rn7Hfr1OE
Now did the monkees make records as joyful as Get Back, Ballad of John and Yoko, or Obladi oblada?
Not done yet:
Someone in this thread conflated joyous and danceable. Maybe it wasn’t you. Still the connection was made. But I don’t understand either point.
Paranoid is a weird example of “danceable” isn’t it? I never think of hard rock and metal as that danceable. Maybe it’s me. Not sure why Louie Louie is hateful.
I think the beatles chose to compose their music to please themselves period, and many many artists copied them including the monkees and the stones. Are you saying they “chose” to compose music that wasn’t danceable? And on purpose at that? it would be a strange strategy.
She Loves You is one of the few joyous moments in the Beatles catalog.
There’s that spontaneity we’ve all experienced when you realize love is developing in a new relationship.
Fist pump and dance!!!
She Loves You, yeah yeah yeah.
That’s a great personal moment captured in this song. All the raw excitement and hope of a new relationship is captured in that simple song.
Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.
Now it looks as though they’re here to stay
Brilliant lyrics but reflective and a bit distant. Yesterday is obviously the work of a more experienced and refined songwriter. But it doesn’t have that raw emotion and spontaity of She Loves You
I love the Beatles but they aren’t a feel good band.
I suppose that’s fair. After all, the Monkees weren’t about music. They were about rebellion! And political and social upheaval!
Why don’t you hate who I hate, kill who I kill to be free!
Unless, of course, musical originality makes one feel good. I think that’s what the world said back then, loudly in fact. I understand it’s not saying that anymore.
It’s not so much the tempo as the rhythm. And, yes, they are completely different.
I will say that their television show was at times hilarious. Their music was okay, but seriously they had no lasting influence, unlike the Beatles.
They did have a lasting impact, on television. They often broke the fourth wall, acknowledging that it was all a show, years before Moonlighting did it. Granted, George Burns spoke to the audience on his earlier show, but that was sort of a nod to his vaudeville roots, I always thought.
Mike Nesmith is also credited with inventing the music video.
As a kid, I loved the Monkees more, and I hated even then how MY Monkees were treated as inferior. I really liked it in A Noun Is A Person Place or Thing how the Monkees were listed as equals to the Beatles! (and Chubby Checker)
As I got older, yes I realized the Beatles were better. But the Monkees are still good.
As an adult, I was saddened that it became obvious that you either had to be eight years old or stoned to enjoy Yellow Submarine or the Monkees TV show, and I am not eight any more.
Funny you used these comparisons. I don’t really like any of the Beatles songs you listed, so for me, yes the Monkees songs win out in a head to head. If you compared Sometime in the Morning to Eleanor Rigby then the Beatles would win. Or Circle Sky to anything on Sgt pepper (except the pukey Within You Without You) then the Beatles win again. Or Antie Grizelda with Revolution #9. 
I’m amused at the number of people in this thread hitting the OP over the head for daring to share her preference for the monkees while simultaneously letting us all know that they prefer the beatles!
Would you care to talk about the rhythms of the monkees vs the beatles? What songs are we thinking of? Is this a “joyous” or a “danceable” comparison?
You do understand that the monkees were designed simply to copy the beatles success in any way possible?
This includes the similarity of the show to “A Hard Days Night,” fourth wall, marx bros hijinks, and all that.
We might have spoken at cross purposes less if we’d used a word like ‘sunny’ instead of ‘joyful’ or ‘joyous’ to describe the music. I agree with the OP that the Monkees music is sunnier than the Beatles. It’s not hugely surprising, given that one band cut its teeth playing in the Hamburg red light district and the other was formed for a California based children’s TV program.
I agree that there are a few more sunny Beatles songs than I first suggested (I suspect not a single one of them was written by John), but they tend not to be amongst the band’s finest work. I absolutely cannot stand ‘Ob-la-di’, and I know I’m not the only one.
I’m not sure ‘She Loves You’ is such a sunny song. So your mate ‘saw’ your ex yesterday? Oh yeah? How did that come about? What were his intentions? Was it a one-off meeting? What made her realise what her true feelings were?
Is it possibly directly related to the way the OP was phrased? How should this thread evolve? Don’t hash over the differences and relations between the two groups?
Monkees music was sunnier because it was made for kids, in a strictly commercial environment, and more emotionally vapid for that reason. But they were aping the beatles so much that there were not as many sunny songs as all that that I can remember. None of this points to the great qualities of the monkees does it? It might be to anyone’s preference, but my answer would be listen to the Kinks, and everything else too then.
I am only posting because it’s quite striking to hear the beatles described as a downer. They sang about love in all kinds of ways for 10 years, changed the world of music, and delivered joy, and all people can say is “They weren’t as happy as the monkees”? Can anyone else see the irony in this? Guessing people weren’t there or something.
In my musical listening the most “sunny” and “joyful” and “happy” things are irresistible melodies sung with verve, by creative people. This happened with the monkees, but not as much to say the least, as they would readily admit.
What phrasing? I acknowledged in the OP that the Beatles were superior artistically, and more important in music history.
I just like the Monkees better.