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O.K., so there is really nothing pretty or fancy about the packaging of this CD. It's about as plain as can be, with no liner notes whatsoever, and no photos other than the ones of the Monkees on the front. It also doesn't give any date(s) for the recordings, but I've read that they were made in 2001. As a budget CD, it really isn't bad.
The CD is short, at only 29 minutes and ten performances. The tracks all sound good, at least to me. Interestingly, the CD is not just live versions of hits or of songs that were mostly hits, as you might expect; in fact, the majority of the songs here are ones that actually were NOT hits for the group. Of the ten songs, only four of them ("Last Train To Clarksville," "Daydream Believer," "I'm A Believer," and "Stepping Stone") are ones that made the Top 40 when the original recordings were released on singles in the '60s. (In fact, those first three songs named all went to #1, and the last one got to #20, and as a B-side yet!) The remaining six songs were non-hit B-sides that didn't appear on the group's albums ("Goin' Down" and "It's Nice To Be With You"), or album-only tracks ("Mary, Mary," "Look Out," "Can You Dig It," and "Do I Have To Do This All Over Again"). (By the way, those first two "album" songs both appeared on the second album, More Of The Monkees, and the other two on the Head soundtrack album.)
The instrumental "backing" on these tracks is very good. For the most part, the performances sound, instrumentally and vocally, pretty faithful to the "arrangements" used on the original recordings; there ARE some "deviations." (Of course, probably NO live performance is going to be EXACTLY like the original record.)
Vocally, Micky and Davy sound the best. (I don't think that's going to come as a surprise to many people!) You can tell that the members are not the young men they were on their '60s recordings, though Davy doesn't sound very much different. Micky's voice has aged more noticeably, but he still does a fine job! As for Peter, he doesn't sound really "bad," but I think even he has sounded better.
I was particularly surprised by the inclusions of Peter's songs "Can You Dig It" and "Do I Have To Do This All Over Again" on this CD. On the originally released recording of "Can You Dig It," Micky sang the vocals, although Peter sang the song first. I think the original recording of "Do I Have To Do This All Over Again" was actually one of the better instances where Peter sang lead. By the way, this song is the last one on this CD; the track is for some reason erroneously listed as another Monkees song, "No Time."
Another notable thing about this CD is the performance of "Mary, Mary," which was written by on-again, off-again Monkees member Michael Nesmith, who at this point was "off." On the original recording, Micky sang the vocals (as he did on Peter's "Can You Dig It"), but on this rendition, the Monkees provided a "group" vocal (I THINK Peter is in there, though I'm not certain), which I find to be very effective!
One other thing that was to me a surprise highlight, is the version of "It's Nice To Be With You," which I think is actually one of the best performances here, if not THE best! (This rendition features an instrumental break, which the original version didn't have.)
Something that is a little odd about this CD is that, despite the "Extended Versions" title, some of the performances are in fact SHORTER than the originally released ones! The one really major instance of this is "Goin' Down," which clocks in at about three minutes, making it shorter than the original version by around a minute and 20-something seconds! (The original was actually one of the longest Monkees recordings to be released!)
Overall, I think this is a good CD, if the idea of a short handful of live Monkees recordings appeals to you! Worth a few dollars but not much more!
(One final note: This CD actually opens with a neat, unlisted horn-led instrumental rendition of the "Monkees Theme" that appears on track one before the performance of "Last Train To Clarksville"! So if you count that, there are technically 11 songs on the CD!)
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Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2015
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Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2018
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Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2020
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Just OK but definitely not extended versions
By NRA Life on June 27, 2020
Just OK but definitely not extended versions it is very misleading when extended version CDs produce what is expected to be extended versions of songs and is not. Their voices sound tired but if it was not for the back up singers this might’ve been ear piercing painful concert. I’ve seen them live many years before this was produced in their concert was just OK. Remember this was a TV band.
By NRA Life on June 27, 2020
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Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2009
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Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2015
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