33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee
Written by Jack Good & Art Fisher
Directed by Art Fisher
Produced by Jack Good
Songs: “I’m A Believer” by Neil Diamond, “Prithee(Do Not Ask For Love)” by Michael Murphy, “Naked Persimmon” by Michael Nesmith, “Goldilocks Sometime”, “Wind Up Man”& “Darwin” by Bill Dorsey, “Only The Fittest Shall Survive” performed by Paul Arnold & The Moon Express, “I Go Ape” by Neil Sedaka, “Come On Up” by Felix Cavaliere, “At The Hop” by David White, John Madara & Artie Singer, “I’m Ready” by Fats Domino, Al Lewis & Sylvester Bradford, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” by Dave Williams & Sunny David, “Tutti Fruitti” by Little Richard, “Shake A Tail Feather” by Otha Hayes, Verlie Rice & Andre Williams, “Blue Monday” by Fats Domino & Dave Bartholomew, “Little Darlin’” by Maurice Williams, “Long Tall Sally” by Little Richard, Robert Blackwell & Enotris Johnson, “Down The Line”(Move On)” by Roy Orbison “Dry Bones” by James Weldon Johnson, “String For My Kite” by Bill Dorsey, “Listen To The Band” by Michael Nesmith.
Guest Appearances
Julie Driscoll
Brian Auger And The Trinity
The Bubby Miles Express
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Richard
Fats Domino
The Clara Ward Singers
Paul Arnold And The Moon Express
We Three
Premiered on April 14, 1969
Summary
In this Monkees 60-minute TV special, a psychedelic wizard(Brian Auger) and his assistant(Julie Driscoll) along with a gorilla takes the Monkees through various stages of evolution through mind control in order to brainwash the world via commercial exploitation. With his electro thought machine, he has the Monkees appear in his quarter in giant test tubes. Then through mind control, strips each of them of their personal identity with Micky as Monkee #1, Peter as Monkee #2, Mike, Monkee #3 and Davy, Monkee #4. First he attempts to have them perform together and turning on the machine the Monkees sing a speeded up rendition of the Monkees theme song then turns of the power to stop them declaring them all in his power.
In his absence, the wizard’s assistant tells them in order to regain their identity they have to relax and think their way out of their captivity into their own fantasies and soon their spirits rise out of their bodies. In Micky’s fantasy, he performs an R&B version duet of “I’m A Believer” with Julie Driscoll. In Peter’s fantasy, he’s on a cushion draped in eastern garb singing the spiritual number “I Prithee(Do Not Ask For Love)”. Mike’s fantasy has him in a splitscreen performing “Naked Persimmon(The Only Thing I Believe Is True) and Davy’s fantasy has him dressed in a doll like costume singing “Goldielocks Sometime” in an oversized child’s room dancing with several live fairytale dolls. The Wizard after observing their fantasies declares each of them with fixation, withdrawal, schizophrenia and regression and then proceeds to continue with the brainwashing. Then Monkees are all in costumes in front of a giant tape recorder performing “Wind Up Man” as stiff-legged forms of robots. Interrupted again by the Wizard who isn’t satisfied with the performance attempts to teach them another song with pianos all on top of one another, he plays a 1950s b-bopping tune along with Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Fats Domino on each piano until. Evolutionist Charles Darwin himself(as Auger) interrupts dissatisfied and tries to start over from the beginning by having the Monkees sing a brief tune “Darwin” before ordering the rise of dancers in space like suits to dance to the psychedelic music of “Only The Fittest Shall Survive” containing congas, drums, heaving breathing and different sceneries.
Next, Darwin introduces his latest masterpiece of evolution which has the Monkees now geared in white gorilla costumes performing the B bopping tune “I Go Ape” along with a group of gorillas. With the Monkees all caught in a net, Julie Driscoll performs the song “Come On Up”. Then the Monkees are regenerated to Darwin’s taste and having them hypnotized, plasticized, psychoanalyzed and sterilized he introduces them as the “greatest rock n’ roll singers in the world” at the Paramount Theatre on December 7, 1956. Soon all dressed in 1950’s wardrobes, they perform classic 1950’s tunes “At The Hop”, “Shake A Tail Feather” and “Little Darlin’” with the group We Three as dancers. Other 50’s icons also appear performing their great hits with Fats Domino singing “I’m Ready” and “Blue Monday”, Jerry Lee Lewis performs “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Down The Line”; Little Richard “Tutti Fruiti” and “Long Tall Sally” and ends with the Clara Ward Singers doing a gospel rendition of “Dry Bones”. Tired of all the brainwashing, Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll interrupt and decide they want to give the Monkees complete and total freedom.
Next scene shows Davy on set cluttered with old junk of littered scores from old movies singing “String For My Kite”. Soon Peter arrives and performs on the keyboards the classical tune “Solfeggietto” by C.P.E. Bach. Then with Mike and Micky and with all four sing “Listen To The Band”. During the song, they are joined by a group of dancing hippies and all the guest musicians from the show including the Bubby Miles Express, Trinity, Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll etc. resulting in a long psychedelic climactic finale until a gorilla literally closes the book with title of the book: The Beginning of The End.
Trivia Notes
The Monkees went into production of this TV special exactly the day
following their last concert as a quartet at the Festival Hall in Osaka,
Japan. This was their last appearance as a quartet period since Peter
left the group at the end of 1968 due to exhaustion.
As the cast crew of this special prepared for filming, NBC went on strike
causing them to switch filming to another location to the MGM studios.
For the “Listen To The Band” score near the end, Jack Good sent a couple
of buses to the Sunset Strip to round up about 100 hippies as an audience.
Actor Rip Taylor who guest starred on the episodes “Monkees On The Wheel”
and “Mijacogeo(aka The Frodis Caper)” also has a cameo appearance during
this number.
The Monkees didn’t like the script for this special feeling it was too sloppy
and fairytale like plus they felt their was too much focus on the guest musicians
then on them.
Originally, negotiations were made for two more NBC’s Monkees TV specials,
but after seeing 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee, NBC rejected the idea.
In the 1990s, this special was released commercially by Rhino Home Videos in
two different versions.
Mike Muphy’s “I Prithee( Do Not Ask For Love)” which is performed in this
Special by Peter was originally recorded with Micky on lead vocals on November
17, 1966 during a session on the “More of The Monkees” album but was released
until 1990 when it became part of Rhino’s “Missing Links Volume 2”.
Jerry Lee Lewis previously worked with Jack Good when he starred as Lago in
Good’s rock n’ roll stage production of Shakespear’s classic Othello titled “Catch
My Soul”.
Singer Julie Driscoll later sang theme song of the British comedy hit “Absolutely
Fabulous”.
