Pleasant!
Carole King – Pleasant Valley Sunday
No, this isn’t actually a Monkees post; I should do one of those one day.
It’s just one of my favorite songs, made popular by them, but written (as many of “their” songs were) by a world-class songwriter; in this case, Carole King.
As a kid, I didn’t really get the social critique going on here; I just liked the bright melody.
The Monkees version DOES add that very distinctive guitar riff at the start:
Monkees – Pleasant Valley Sunday
https://youtu.be/l3YIuqvh_WA?rel=0&vq=hd720&w=660
Unsurprisingly, buzzy-guitar fanatics The Wedding Present beefed that bit up even further:
The Wedding Present – Pleasant Valley Sunday
Post Header Image Credits
(From Wikimedia Commons):
CC BY-SA 3.0
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Uploaded by Moehre1992
Created: 24 November 2010
I went on Spotify to see if there were any other interesting covers of this song to post, but they almost all sound the same. So, I guess this is the perfect pop tune, impossible to be improved upon. The Monkees never lacked for quality material.
I really dig how Mike Nesmith prefigured a disinterested Bruce Gilbert by about 20 years. Here’s Bruce, and the rest of Wire, in what surely must be one of the more surreal things to ever hit network TV.
https://youtu.be/g55U11h7dUIReport
I guess this is the perfect pop tune, impossible to be improved upon
Maybe it’s just because it falls into the “folk-rock” category, with those sort of droning close harmonies, but her version actually makes me think of early R.E.M. or something.
When I called King a world-class songwriter, I wasn’t kidding. From wikipedia:
Here are a few of her songs, and you probably know all of them:
https://youtu.be/3irmBv8h4Tw
https://youtu.be/aATtWybSaow
https://youtu.be/2_f9lrXd_48
https://youtu.be/eKpVQm41f8Y
https://youtu.be/f20Oz9Yr_So
https://youtu.be/YRvcIj3XzU8
https://youtu.be/U454GbTN3xc
https://youtu.be/_aQgPKgupvQ
https://youtu.be/dEWuAcMWDLY
https://youtu.be/BDm1xD_Kwyc
https://youtu.be/xEkIou3WFnM
https://youtu.be/1GAaWz4X4nUReport
Related:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICsnVVkrz7w&w=420&h=315%5D
Favorite King:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg09UcgPu0Q&w=420&h=315%5D
Hope that works.
I’ve never had much luck embedding videos.
I suck.Report