Customer Reviews

Dolenz Jones Boyce & Hart

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Well, the good news is that the DJB&H Capitol album is finally out on a legit. CD label. I seriously thought that nobody was ever going to see any interest in reissuing this album on CD. And there IS some good music here. Songs like "Remember The Feeling" and "Right Now" have that happy go lucky Monkee "sound". Even "You And I" was remade, (with a completely different arrangement), on JUSTUS, the Monkees reunion album with the elusive Mike Nesmith in 1996. The album in and of itself is definitely worth a listen.

However, this reissue of the project is in serious need of some sonic TLC. Anyone who listens to this CD will easily be able to tell that it was recorded off a vinyl copy of the album, hence my three star rating. It's a shame that nobody has taken the time to locate the masters and do a proper job of remastering this recording in it's entirety. Several of the tracks do appear on the Boyce And Hart Anthology import album, (also available here on Amazon), and those tracks do sound better to my ears than what they do here.

Buy this if you're a Monkee completist who has been waiting for somebody to wake up and release the Capitol album. Skip it if you're perfectly happy with the vinyl and/or the previously available CD-R bootleg copies of the recording.

In 1976 Monkees Micky Dolenz & Davy Jones along with songwriters Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart produced the only studio album of DJBH. To showcase the album the band performed Right Now & I Remember the Feeling, my favorite song of 1976, on American Bandstand that year.
Many feel this recording is the best post 1960s Monkees related album. Mr. Dolenz gives audio testimony as to why a lot of people feel he's one of the all-time great vocalists in Rock & Roll history.
A 2005 English import, the sound quality is above average (I suggest cranking the volume up to make up for lost sound). Don't let the not quite sonically sound album keep you from going on this half Monkees audio adventure!

One of the "Monkees" lost albums. Reissue efforts by Arista and Rhino have ignored this recording, probably because of the fact it was not billed officially as a Monkees work, and because Capitol records apparently still owns it, which would mean paying licensing fees which they may have perceived demand for the record did not warrant. Most unfortunate, as most fans seem to have a special place in their hearts for this record. It is obvious that this DJBH was aimed at the same audience, and would almost certainly have been called a "Monkees" release had the rights to the name been available. Almost everyone involved had been a part of the original Monkees sessions in the past. On the Monkees first five albums, their most commercially successful ones, Dolenz and Jones were usually featured, and spent as much time being backed by Boyce and Hart and some of their studio cohorts as they did being supported by Nesmith and Tork. The substance of Nesmith and Tork's contributions is sometimes missed here, but the album has an upbeat spirit and appeal that recalls their glory days, and is absent from almost every post '60's Monkees album (including 1987's POOL IT!, where the "energy" of the record comes across as stiff and unconvincingly as a forced smile). DJBH is light, and fluffy in places, but never-the-less is often times more sophisticated than some of the group's previous efforts, and manages to sound in ways sonically more mature. The influence of the Bee Gees, by then the "topper-most-of-the-popper most" is often amusing. Dolenz and Jones sound as though they can't sing one or two of the songs with a straight face.
There are numerous highlights here, already well covered by others, that will make your toes tap and bring a smile to your face as well as any of the 1960's Monkees cannon. The only real clunker being Boyce and Hart's "Sweet Heart Attack". A bad pun comparing love to a heart attack? Who thinks coronaries are funny?
As to the sound, this CD release sounds much better than most bootlegs I have heard. There are a few tics here and there that the filters couldn't mute, and a few places where some surface noise peaks through, but overall, it is crisp, reasonably clear, without much distortion. Hearing what a train wreck some reissues can be even with the original master tapes (Rhino has never put out a CD of the Monkees Pisces that sounds as good as the original LP), the fact that this is a "dub" of the original vinyl is not all bad. By the time DJBH was recorded, studio tech had advanced since the '60's, so this was better recorded than the Monkees older 60's analog records. The Capitol records pressing of this record is very good (I know, I have it), on par with some of RCA's "Dynagroove" releases and many of the "audiophile" Vinyl releases of today. A dub of a good condition copy of this record into digital with pro equipment and pro editing means you get a CD that sounds like a mint copy of the original LP that you can play over and over without fear, and without the sloppy formatting on most amateur CD-R's. I've never heard a CD-R bootleg that did not have sound and/or editing issues that are absent on this English reissue CD.
Bottom line, if you like the Monkees, you'll probably love this. One strange note: the original back cover art is included in the booklet, along with credits, some rare B&W photos and decent liner notes. But the external art features the head shots from the original LP jacket spliced into a weird bi-plane art creation. ????? No explanation for this seems reasonable. Oh well, many releases of the Monkees LP's outside the U.S. had different jackets, so it could be viewed as making the CD just another collectible curiosity.
Don't miss this one, who knows if and when they will ever release this "cult classic" again legitimately.

The listing shows the first song as "Right Now I Love You (And I'm Glad That I Said It)". This is actually the first two selections. The first is "Right Now" and the second is "I Love You (And I'm Glad That I Said It)". Anyhow, I have not played this record for some time but I do remember that the second selection, "I Love You (And I'm Glad That I Said It)" is by far the best selection on the album. It should have been a hit in it's own right. Also the selection "You and I" was re-recorded on the Monkees' 1996 30th Anniversary album "Justus". It was rearranged with an additional verse, and was better on "Justus". Still I felt it was a pretty decent album all things considered.

PLEASE try to locate the master tapes to this unappreciated masterpiece (Minus "Along Came Jones")! This is the 35th Anniversary of this great album and no one releases a "listenable copy! PLUS, it would be great to hear the unreleased "Sail On Sailor" with a bonus verse (by Micky I've heard)! I would be happy with just the original 12 Tracks from the master tapes. Even my old 8 Track sounds better! I also have it on LP from the US and Japan and the Japanese sounds incredible! If I owned "Cherry Red" Records, I wouldn't have released this until I had the master tapes in my hand. I have plenty other Cherry Red CD issues that sound awesome! Packaging and sound quality is unsurpassed! Unfortunately, "Dolenz, Jones Boyce & Hart" sounds like a copy from a copy of a beat up cassette. It being DJB&H's 35th anniversary and The Monkees 45th, now is the time to do the research! Contact Andrew Sandovol at Rhino or someone in charge of Capitol's masters. Do it while the market is up to buy!

I was a huge Monkee fan growing up and when Micky and Davy hooked up with Boyce and Hart I had some doubts about how good this album would be....but my friends and I back in the day when it first came out bought it and loved every song on it! It's been years since I even seen where this album went and I have been thinking about these songs for a few weeks now so I just had to go on line and purchase this CD! I can't wait for it to come in and play it at home or in my car and sing along with these great songs! They bring back such great memories of hanging with my friends and having good times! Love Micky Dolenz and always will! Met him for the first time at a show I went to recently in Phoenix and was thrilled! Glad to see he is still doing what he loves and what I love listening too! MJ :)

As a Monkees collector, I was excited to see that this was finally available on CD. I had never heard the album until I bought this CD. The album itself is interesting and very good, as far as a poor-charting Monkees release goes. The problem here is the sound quality. God awful. I recorded Davy Jone's 1971 Bell album from vinyl to CD-R, and my remastering of that album actually sounds better than the quality of this CD. What is a collector to do? Right now, this is the only version on CD and you are stuck with it. Don't get your hopes up if you buy this.

This is a rather under-appreciated good albumb, which is definitely what the Monkees would have been like if they had been together in the 1970's.

IMHO, it's a pity that they couldn't have stayed together, and as Micky Dolenz himself admitted, fulfill their (then-young) fan's desire to create something one could dance ot.

I really liked this, it makes an interesting comparison to Mike Nesmith's work around the same time!

After The Monkees faded from the music scene upon Michael Nesmith's departure in 1969, Mickey Dolenz made a number of attempts to pick up the pieces and get the group back together.

Before the band found a second career on the "oldies/nostalgia" circuit, Dolenz enlisted Davy Jones and key songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart for this solid comeback album that was released in 1976. Keeping the focus on well-crafted pop, this is clearly the venue for Dolenz, who demonstrates solid leadership throughout the project. The top tracks are Right Now, You and I, Savin' My Love for You and I Remember the Feeling, with the only clunker being Along Came Jones.

A failed U.S. tour - though a live album was released from the Japanese concert dates - and poor record sales doomed the band, but they left behind some neat pop rock...minus the sugary bubblegum.

I happen to be a fan of the majority of this album on vinyl. This CD sounds like a copy from a poor cassette. Like others found on Ebay. There has yet to be a Capitol Records master tape release on CD. Unusual for Cherry Red Records! I have their Boyce & Hart collection "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite" and all but 2 of their Runaways releases and the all sound great.