Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.

Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
Studio album by the Monkees
Released	November 14, 1967[1]
Recorded	April 26 – October 9, 1967
Studio	RCA Victor (Hollywood) RCA Victor (New York) Western Recorders, No. 1 (Hollywood) American Recording Company (Studio City) United Recorders, A (Hollywood)
Genre	Pop[2] rock psychedelic rock[3]
Length	35:44
Label	Colgems
Producer	Chip Douglas
The Monkees chronology
Headquarters (1967) Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (1967) The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees (1968)
Singles from Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
"Pleasant Valley Sunday" / "Words" Released: July 10, 1967

Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. is the fourth album by the Monkees. It was released on November 14, 1967, during a period when the band exerted more control over their music and performed many of the instruments themselves (previously forbidden by Colgems Records). However, although the group had complete artistic control over the proceedings, they invited more outside contributions than on their previous album, Headquarters, and used session musicians to complement their sound. The album also featured one of the first uses of the Moog synthesizer in popular music. Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. sold over three million copies, becoming the band's fourth consecutive album to reach No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200.

By the spring of 1967, The Monkees had become a pop culture phenomenon thanks to several multi-million selling singles and albums, all promoted by their accompanying television show. However, while they had quickly become America's biggest rock act, their reputation with the counterculture had plummeted with the news they had not played the instruments on their first two albums, and the new rock press had a field day trashing them.^[4][5] Keen to regain a sense of integrity, they had just wrested control of their music's artistic direction from Don Kirshner, who had been fired by Colgems in late February for attempting to release their third single "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You" without permission.^[4] With their newfound freedom, the group had recorded their third album, Headquarters, entirely on their own, with half the songs written and nearly all instruments played by the four band members. While the group were proud of the record, its stay at number one on the charts was quickly cut short by the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which ushered in a new era of highly sophisticated, conceptual rock albums. Like all other bands of the period, The Monkees took notice and were eager to take their music in a more experimental, psychedelic direction (although the group had already recorded a few early psychedelic tracks such as "Take A Giant Step" and "Words", the latter of which would be re-recorded for the new album). Just after the release of Sgt. Pepper, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz attended the Monterey International Pop Festival, where they were ready to ditch their bubblegum image and blend in with the hippie scene; Dolenz came wearing a full American Indian feathered headdress.^[4]

After experiencing difficulty during the recording of Headquarters, Dolenz decided he no longer wanted to drum on the band's recordings, so "Fast" Eddie Hoh (a friend of producer Chip Douglas) was drafted in to take his place, while Douglas himself assumed bass duties.^[5] The result was a hybrid of session players and Monkees on instrumentation, while the songwriting was largely dependent on the professional songwriting teams used on prior albums (only now the choice of songs was picked by the group themselves) with the addition, as on prior records, of several Nesmith originals.

The sessions for Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. began at RCA Victor Studios in Hollywood less than two weeks after the finish of Headquarters, just as the group began filming the second season of their TV show. On April 26, 1967 "Cuddly Toy", an ostensibly lightweight music hall-inspired love song penned by a then-unknown Harry Nilsson, was completed from start to finish with Dolenz on his last drum performance for the group. The song caused some controversy with Screen Gems when it was leaked that the lyrics were actually sly innuendo for a Hell's Angels gang-bang;^[1] however, royalties from the song allowed Nilsson to quit his bank job and devote himself full-time to music.^[4] On May 29, the basic track for Bill Martin's folky, anti-war "The Door Into Summer" was laid down with Dolenz initially on lead vocal, before being replaced by Mike Nesmith. Nesmith would eventually sing lead on five of the album's songs, more than any other member. On June 10, the day after a prestige gig at the Hollywood Bowl, the group recorded the Goffin/King number "Pleasant Valley Sunday" which was earmarked for release as their next single a month later.^[4] The song's propulsive guitar riff, inspired by the Beatles' "I Want to Tell You", was composed by Chip Douglas and played by Nesmith, while the ending was drenched in psychedelic reverb.^[5] On the same day, Tork recorded an old nursery rhyme in the public domain, "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky", which directly preceded "Pleasant Valley Sunday" on the album.^[1] "Sunday" was then finished with overdubs of congas, guitars, and vocals on the 11th and 13th. On June 14 the group attempted a re-recording of Boyce/Hart's "Words", which had first been recorded in October 1966 with session musicians, aired on the television show and intended for More of the Monkees before being pulled.^[5] The group re-recording of this psychedelic number replaced the flute solo with a Hammond organ break from Tork; when issued as the B-side of "Pleasant Valley Sunday" that summer it charted at No. 11. On the same day, the basic tracks for Craig Smith's "Salesman" and John Stewart's "Daydream Believer" were also cut, although "Daydream Believer" was ultimately saved as an "ace in the hole" for the following album.^[5] "Salesman" also caused trouble with the network brass, who thought the lyrics were about drugs, although it was eventually featured in the episode "The Devil and Peter Tork."^[1]

After Dolenz and Tork returned from The Monterey Pop Festival, the group reconvened on June 19 to record basic tracks for Nesmith's "Daily Nightly" and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil's "Love Is Only Sleeping". Nesmith had penned "Daily Nightly" about the burning of the nightclub Pandora's Box during the Sunset Strip riots, although Dolenz ended up singing lead.^[5] Meanwhile, Nesmith took the vocal lead on "Love Is Only Sleeping", which was initially chosen as the non-album follow up to "Pleasant Valley Sunday" that October, until a delay in manufacturing caused Colgems to rethink its planned B-side "Daydream Believer" as the A-side, and release that instead.^[1] On June 20, two more songs were recorded: Nesmith's "Don't Call On Me", written before his time in the Monkees, was a tongue-in-cheek cocktail lounge bossa nova replete with a spoken word intro coming from "the elegant Pump Room of the magnificent Palmer House high above Chicago."^[5] Nesmith also chose the Murphy/Castleman (under the alias Lewis & Clark) composition "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?", which continued his attempt to veer the group closer to a country-rock sound, including unusual chord changes and an electric banjo played by Doug Dillard, meant to differ from traditional country.^[1] Of the two tracks attempted on June 21, "Goin' Down" started as a group jam on Mose Allison's "Parchman Farm", over which they wrote a new lyric and melody line with help from Diane Hildebrand.^[5] It was intended for the album until picked as the flip side to "Daydream Believer", although it did feature in several second season episodes and became a firm live favorite over the next five decades. The other song, "She Hangs Out", had been recorded with session musicians under Don Kirshner's supervision back in January and chosen as the original B-side of "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" before cancellation, as it had been pressed without the group's permission.^[4] With Kirshner gone, the group were free to re-record it for the album in a slower, funkier arrangement with horns; a mix without the horns was heard in season two of the series.^[1] On June 22, the backing track for Goffin/King's "Star Collector", written about the new groupie phenomenon, was recorded. Originally meant as a two-and-a-half-minute song, the closing jam went on for three more minutes over which Dolenz suggested they add electronic sounds from the Moog synthesizer he had just purchased.^[5]

The second half of the sessions were scattered over dates in-between gigs on their summer world tour, held largely for overdubs, although one new song was also recorded. It was at this time that the sessions moved from four track to eight track recording, allowing for more layers to be added.^[1] July 5 was dedicated to further work on "Goin' Down", while brass was also added to "She Hangs Out" in New York on July 21. Davy Jones's lead vocal on "Daydream Believer" was captured on August 9 at RCA Studios in Nashville, along with Mike's lead on "Don't Call On Me". On August 23, overdubs were added to "The Door Into Summer" while Davy Jones and Kim Capli recorded "Hard To Believe" from the ground up, with Capli overdubbing all the instruments one at a time before adding orchestral overdubs in September.^[5] "Hard To Believe" was to be the first "Broadway rock" number from Davy, a type which would appear on all their future albums. On September 15, "Goin' Down" was completed in Hollywood with lead vocals and brass. Finally, extensive Moog synthesizer overdubs were added to "Daily Nightly" and "Star Collector", the former played by Micky Dolenz in August while Paul Beaver overdubbed Moog parts for "Star Collector" on October 4. Peter Tork later expressed his opinion that Micky's playing was more organic: "Micky's Moog part on "Daily Nightly" was – I thought – brilliant. Another example of his intense creativity, when he was into it. He just made the Moog stand up and speak. Paul thought it was a flute or something. He was sort of out there musically, but still within normal harmonic bounds."^[1]

Other songs attempted during the sessions for the fourth album included Goffin/King's "A Man Without A Dream" (later remade for Instant Replay), "Symphony Is Over", Tork's "The Love Song From Tippy The Toiler", Linzer/Randell's "I'll Be Back Up On My Feet" (initially recorded in 1966 and remade again in 1968 for The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees) and Mann/Weil's "I'm A Man."

The album's title stems from each band member's respective astrological sign: Micky Dolenz is Pisces, Peter Tork is Aquarius, and both Mike Nesmith and Davy Jones are Capricorn.

The album's cover features a drawing of the four Monkees by Bernard Yeszin, their facial features blank and standing in a field of watercolored flowers, with the group's iconic guitar logo half-buried. The flowers were meant to represent the flower-power movement which was big at the time, while the choice of silhouetting their faces was, according to Yeszin, because "The Monkees were so popular and so hot at the time...that I could do just about anything that reminded you of The Monkees. I could do an album cover and just show their outline and people would identify them. People would know they were The Monkees."^[5]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
MusicHound	[6]
Record Collector	[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[8]
The Wire	(favorable)

The album was preceded by the release of "Pleasant Valley Sunday" b/w "Words" on July 10, which was a hit, the two sides peaking at No. 3 and No. 11 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100. "Daydream Believer" b/w "Goin' Down", both recorded during the sessions and released on October 25, became their final No. 1 although the A-side was saved for inclusion on the following album, The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees.^[4] Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. was itself released on November 14, 1967. After entering the Billboard 200 at No. 29, it jumped straight to No. 1 the next week and stayed in that position for five consecutive weeks, eventually selling over three million copies.^[9] Producer Chip Douglas, however, later noted that the album would have probably sold many more copies had "Daydream Believer" been included as originally planned. In the UK, the album was released in January 1968 and charted at No. 5.^[10]

Initial reviews from Billboard and Cashbox were positive. Billboard picked "Salesman" and "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round" as "topnotch" while Cashbox called it a "sure to please powerhouse", with both magazines predicting it would top the charts.^[11][12] In the UK, Allen Evans of New Musical Express gave the album a track-by-track review and identified "Cuddly Toy" and "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round" as the best tracks.^[13] The counterculture press, however, ignored the album at the time of release; it was not reviewed by Rolling Stone or Crawdaddy and in the 2004 edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide it received one-and-a-half stars.^[8] Recent decades have seen far warmer appraisals: AllMusic's Tim Sendra opined "not only is it one of the Monkees' best, it is one of 1967's best. To think that both this album and Headquarters came out the same year! ... Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. is a must-have for any fan of smart, fun, and exciting '60s pop."^[2] Record Collector also gave a favorable review, noting that the album "is The Monkees' refined third album of 1967, a pop-psych triumph, with Americana signposts and the likes of "Pleasant Valley Sunday" and "Daily Nightly" making it the real challenger to The Beatles."^[7]

In 2007, Rhino Entertainment issued a two-disc deluxe edition of the album. The CD set featured original album artwork, including replicas of the original Colgems vinyl labels on each disc, as well as a booklet of essays and session information by Monkees historian Andrew Sandoval. The discs contain remastered mixes of the album's stereo and mono releases, as well as alternate mixes and outtakes.

The album was among the earliest to make use of the Moog synthesizer, which Micky Dolenz introduced to the group and played in the studio; he owned one of the first twenty ever sold.^[14] Along with the May 1967 release The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds, the Doors' September 1967 album Strange Days and the Byrds' The Notorious Byrd Brothers in January 1968, Pisces was one of the first commercial recordings featuring the Moog to reach a wide audience. Dolenz played the synthesizer on "Daily Nightly", while electronic musician Paul Beaver played it on "Star Collector".

The original track lineup for the album, compiled on October 9, 1967, included the following songs:^[1]

1. "Special Announcment"
2. "She Hangs Out"
3. "Salesman"
4. "Cuddly Toy"
5. "Words"
6. "Don't Call on Me"
7. "Goin' Down"

Side two

1. "The Door Into Summer"
2. "Hard to Believe"
3. "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?"
4. "Daily Nightly"
5. "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky"
6. "Pleasant Valley Sunday"
7. "Star Collector"

Credits adapted from 2007 Rhino "Deluxe Edition" CD,^[5] except where noted.

The Monkees

• Michael Nesmith – lead vocals (1, 3–4, 8, 12), guitar (1, 4, 8, 11–13), shaker (1), electric guitar (2, 10), acoustic guitar (5), tremolo electric guitar (6), percussion (6), backing vocals (6, 10)
• Micky Dolenz – percussion (1), backing vocals (1–2, 4–5, 8, 13), harmony vocals (3, 5, 13), drums (5), lead vocals (6, 10–11), Moog synthesizer (11), intro chatter (12)
• Davy Jones – percussion (1, 6), backing vocals (1–2, 4–5, 8, 10–11, 13), lead vocals (2, 5, 7, 13), tambourine (4–5), intro chatter (12)
• Peter Tork – organ (2, 4–6, 11–13), keyboards (3, 5), backing vocals (5, 10), lead vocals (6), spoken word (9), piano (10)

Additional musicians

Unconfirmed personnel and duties

• Chip Douglas – backing vocals (1, 10), electric guitar (13)
• Peter Tork – acoustic guitar (1)
• Additional electric guitar, tambourine, handclaps & other percussion (2)
• Michael Nesmith – guitar (3)
• Micky Dolenz – drums (3), guitar (10)
• Bill Martin – unknown (3–4)
• Harry Nilsson – unknown (3–4)
• Percussion (3)
• Handclaps, percussion (4)
• Davy Jones – backing vocals (6)
• Others in intro chatter (12)
• Additional backing vocals (13)

Technical

• Chip Douglas – producer
• Lester Sill – music supervisor
• Hank Cicalo – recording engineer
• Pete Abbott – recording engineer
• Richie Schmitt – recording engineer
• Bernard Yeszin – cover design
• Roger Farris – arranger (7)^[1]
• George Tipton – orchestrator (7)^[1]

Works cited

• All information can be found in Rhino Records' reissues (1995 and 2007) of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
• The Monkees: The Day-By-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation by Andrew Sandoval