Feliz Navidad from THE MONKEES

[Marc Chevalier]

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It just isn't the season until you've heard THE MONKEES sing "Riu, Riu Chiu", a 15th-century Spanish Christmas song.



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[Miss Neecerie]

I -heart- the Monkees....I have their albums on vinyl and everything!

 

[Edward]

I've got two or three CD compliations with a lot of great stuff from them on there. I even saw 'em live once..... on the 1997 reunion tour, that is (the only reunion which featured all four original members - I gather it's about the only time they were all speaking to each other long enough to do it, lol ). Great fun. Davy really is tiny - he was stood nearly beside me at one point (during a surreal few inutes where he jumped off the stage and ran into the audience - cue a string of middle aged ladies queuing up to hug the boy). He was stood three feet from me at one point, though it took a minute before I realised that - I'd assumed he was just far away (he really is a tiny 5'3"!).

 

[scottyrocks]

I -heart- the Monkees....I have their albums on vinyl and everything!

Same here. The first one I got was their second album, 'More of the Monkees,' and I played it past wearing it out. One of my favorite songs of theirs is the first song on that album, 'She.' Its on my ipod, along with some of their others.

 

[The Shirt]

Heehee - they are my guilty pleasure. I was at the perfect age for buying into their 80s-90s reunion. Lordy do I have the collection. I even have a very rare Davy Jones solo album from his Oliver days that an older neighbor gave to me. We were in line for a show or book signing or something of the sort, got to talking and we realized that she lived in my childhood home. What a co-inkee-dink. I heart them as well despite them being old enough to be my pop.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Nice, thanks Marc...

The Monkees were a great vehicle for many studio musicians and song writers, inlcuding Neil Diamond, the Boyce-Hart partnership, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Harry Nilsson, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, and Glen Cambell, Neil Young and drummer "Fast" Eddie Hoh.

 

["Skeet" McD]

.

It just isn't the season until you've heard THE MONKEES sing "Riu, Riu Chiu", a 15th-century Spanish Christmas song.

Well, I had no use for the Monkees when they were around (so was I)...and I'm afraid still can't count them as a guilty pleasure. Or any other kind. But: jedem das seine; svvm qvicqve, et c.

But I will say: pretty amazing. This was the early period of early music...and this villancico was fairly well-known...at least, much better than it would have been 20 years earlier...thanks to the recordings of the NY Pro Musica. I'm expecting this is the path which brings us to this rather strange, but strangely charming, video.

They're really doing the original setting, as well: there's just one voicing change I think I note. Yes, a bit out of tune....but to tell you the truth...if you close your eyes, you're probably a lot closer to hearing what it would have sounded like in 1520 than most recorded versions.

Thanks Marc: now I can start feeling Christmassy....I'll have to dig out my huckapoo shirt with the candy canes on it

"Skeet"

 

[classiccraig]

The band I'm in has played with various Monkee members through the years, I've played with Davy 2 times with my band, though not in a long time now, We play with Peter a few times a year and have known him for many years now. We did not play with him this year because of his Cancer treatment, but he is gigging again now. Peter and Micky appeared together last month at a convention in Massachusetts and we were asked if we wanted to do it, but we had other commitments already in place and couldn't do it. I wanted to because my band has played with Micky before, but I wasn't in the group then so I haven't played with him but have met him. Never got to meet Mike Nesmith. I like a lot of the Monkees tunes, good stuff. Peter is a very good musician actually, plays several instruments very well.

Hopefully if Peter is feeling good next year, we'll play with him again. He did a surprise set with us 2 years ago at a local place here in NJ, our crowd loved it, we didn't tell them ahead of time. We did Early Morning Blues and Greens, Words(one of my favorites), For Pete's Sake, Daydream Believer, I'm a Believer, Pleasant Valley Sunday and a few more, and some Chuck Berry stuff he likes to play. Below are a few pics from that night and also a pic of me with Davy from October 31st of this year. I hadn't seen him in like 15 years, so we talked a bit, he remembers us and I told him we play with Peter a lot and he said he knows, Peter told him. Oh, and Micky Rooney was there too!

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Funny how there was an uproar about the Monkees not being a "real band" back in the late 1960's. Today, they seem like the Rolling Stones compared to the some current and recent manufactured performers.

 

[zendy]

Funny how there was an uproar about the Monkees not being a "real band" back in the late 1960's. Today, they seem like the Rolling Stones compared to the some current and recent manufactured performers.

:arated: Last night one of my girlfriends had me watch a music video, I turned to her and asked, "why do they only have 2 sentences in their song?" seriously, it was over and over and... well you get the picture. I wouldn't have minded if it was just the electronic beat, but seriously, say it once. I got that you had 6 girls in your truck the first 5 times you said it. Obviously (thankfully) I've been out of the popular music loop for a long while

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Here is the English translation of the "Riu, Rui Chiu" lyrics:



Riu, riu, chiu (nightingale's sounds)
The river bank protects it,
As God kept the wolf from our lamb

The rabid wolf tried to bite her
But God Almighty knew how to defend her
He wished to create her impervious to sin
Nor was this maid to embody original sin
Riu, riu, chiu (nightingale's sounds)
The river bank protects it,
As God kept the wolf from our lamb

He comes to give life to the dead
He comes to redeem the fall of man
This child is the light of day
He is the very lamb Saint John prophecied

Riu, riu, chiu (nightingale's sounds)
The river bank protects it,
As God kept the wolf from our lamb

A thousand singing herons
I saw passing,
Flying overhead, sounding
A thousand voices
Exulting, "Glory be in the
heavens, and peace on earth,
for Jesus has been born."

Riu, riu, chiu (nightingale's sounds)
The river bank protects it,
As God kept the wolf from our lamb

He comes to give life to the dead
He comes to redeem the fall of man
This child is the light of day
He is the very lamb Saint John
prophesied

Riu, riu, chiu (nightingale's sounds)
The river bank protects it,
As God kept the wolf from our lamb

A thousand singing herons
I saw passing
Flying overhead, sounding
a thousand voices
Exulting, "Glory be in the
heavens, and peace on earth
for Jesus has been born."

Riu, riu, chiu (nightingale's sounds)
The river bank protects it,
As God kept the wolf from our lamb.


,

 

[Edward]

Funny how there was an uproar about the Monkees not being a "real band" back in the late 1960's. Today, they seem like the Rolling Stones compared to the some current and recent manufactured performers.

Hah, ain't that the truth..... I refuse to watch on principle, but I read in the papers recently that The Great Satan of the entertainment industry, aka [spits]Simon Cowell[/spits], during a recording of the X Factor show, heaped praise upon Queen for their songwriting talents.... How ironic, coming from the man who has done more than most to turn the mainstream of the music industry into glorified karaoke with nary a sniff of originality in it....

I heart them as well despite them being old enough to be my pop.

Oh, hey, no shame in that.... I mean, I've long had a thing for Debbie Harry (I much prefer her now she looks like a woman - the waif thing never did it for me), and she's, well.... a year or two older than my mother. lol

ClassicCraig... wow, that must have been a great experience. The Monkees themselves were much more talented than they tend to get credit for, given their manufactured origins. Peter and Mike were, as I'm sure you know, regular gigging musicans, while Davy and Mickey came from musical theatre backgrounds - Mickey, if memory serves, was truly an old-school vaudevillan by experience. The band had to fight their management long and hard to be permitted to write their own material, even to be allowed to do more than simply provide vocals on their recorded tracks. Mickey became a very talented drummer across his Monkees years, and has gone on record about how produ he was that the monkees themselves played "every f**king note" on their third album.

Mickey is coming over to the UK in the New Year to do a stint as Wilbur in Hairspray - you better believe I'll be going to that!!

 

[classiccraig]

Yeah, we always have fun playing with Peter. First time I played with him was back in 98' I think, it was a big show we put together here in my town and we did it at this old German beerhall from the 1920's, it was a fantastic place. All the designs and architecture were from that period, it had a big, massive stage, with the curtains and a huge dance floor with the tables all around for dining, old chandeliers, it was an amazing place to play. I have some pics somewhere from that night, and I am also glad i had taken my old camcorder that night, because after soundcheck we had a few hours to kill before showtime and I went around the whole inside of the place videotaping it and all the old architecture and found all sorts of great old flyers and band instruments, etc.. from events that had been held there going way, way back in years. The place was massive, it had these old movie-star like dressing rooms downstairs below the stage, which we used, and it had an entire other club downstairs called 'Der Ratskeller" lol We played there again at a later date as well.

Sadly, they demolished the place a few years later and built an ugly office building on the former site. Everytime I pass it i remember that old place.

 

[Warden]

I love the Monkees, only have one CD. must remember to buy more.