Hello Kitty Personality Sphere

i'm only 22 and i've seen this movie dozens of times. ive loved the monkees since i was a child and growing into a weirdo teen and discovering HEAD then was good timing :) i really appreciate their snarky, philosophical and sarcastic sense of humor that they didnt get to showcase as much on saturday morning TV. if you like them as people, if the music sounds good to you, and if you can fund the humor in 'wtf!' moments, then its definitely worth watching. i even play a drinking game with friends whove never seen it and theyre supposed to drink everytime theres a celebrity cameo. unfortunately i know more about the 60's usually and i get pretty tanked by the end :)

"Frank Zappa is probably most well-known as an incredibly inventive and technical guitarist, at least among musicians."

And there you go. Musicians are a minority. Frank Zappa is known to the vast majority who know him at all as a singer.

Sure he was a guitarist, a political activist, a composer and other things too. He was a multi-talented and multi-faceted gent, but ask most people what he was and they will say "singer" or maybe just "Frank Who?"

Eddie,

Arnie kinda beat me to it (the Zappa thing), but to expand a little bit: Frank Zappa is probably most well-known as an incredibly inventive and technical guitarist, at least among musicians. he was writing "prog rock" stuff before that genre was really a "thing", and Dweezil Zappa has been doing his "Zappa Plays Zappa" project for a few years now. Dweezil said he had to study and practice his dad's music for two years before he even put his touring band together, because it's so complicated!

Frank also wrote a lot of, um, "unique" lyrics, which he's also well-known for. while i'd consider Frank a good singer, that was probably most done out of necessity, to get his lyrics across.

so yeah, Frank was a composer, first and foremost; it was probably just a useful convenience that he could sing well, although his voice wasn't particularly unique (meaning that i doubt many people could identify Frank by his voice alone, especially compared to singers who have extremely identifiable voices, like Geddy Lee or Johnny Cash or Elvis.)

two more quick Frank Zappa fun facts: he actually appeared in the beginning of an episode of The Monkee's tv show (as himself), although his intro didn't really have anything to do with the episode at all. and despite popular belief, Frank actually didn't do ANY drugs at all!

Thanks Arnie!

I saw the movie once years ago. OK, I saw some of it. I got bored after a few minutes and changed the channel. Seeing the You-Tube trailer was enough to get the pointlessness of it all.

i actually saw "HEAD" on late-night tv not too long ago, on a digital sub-channel. it was...bizarre! i only missed the first 10 minutes or so, but i had absolutely NO idea WHAT was going on! it was the most nonsensical thing i've ever seen, bar none...yet strangely, i kinda want to watch it again!

Hi Eddie,

I think what Dendoica means (and I could be wrong) is that Frank Zappa was also a composer. Just about any song you hear of his, he completely wrote the music, lyrics, etc.

I'm a fan of his and really familiar with his work but a lot of times I think of him as a singer because he is usually the main singer. So you're both right.

Also, I'm a fan of your talent. You've got great comedic timing.

I'm a fan of much of the '60s but, for me, this isn't nostalgia, it's just dated.

Hi dendoica, I have absolutely no idea what you mean in your comment.

I am definitely not an expert on Frank Zappa.

I did a voice-over gig once with Dweezel and I also did one with Moon Unit, his kids, they were both great.

But I thought Frank Zappa was a singer.

??????

I'm a big fan of the Monkees, and enjoyed this movie for what it is... a weird trippy film that does at least have the overarching "manufactured image" theme to keep it (a tiny bit) cohesive. I saw the Monkees' tour a few months ago with Micky, Peter, and Davy, and they actually devoted quite a bit of the show to the songs from "Head" - it was pretty much a fangirl's dream, haha :)

"Singer" Frank Zappa?

That's almost as bad as an Elizabeethan era reviewer talking about part-time actor William Shakespeare.

This brings back memories of my teenage years when I had a schoolgirl crush on Peter Tork! My best friend had it bad for Davy Jones. Great article as always, Eddie. Love your work so much!

I enjoyed Head and thought it was way better than the TV show, but then what wasn't?

Tsk for saying not good! With Jack on this- seen it a million times & love it. Forget Inception as film about makin movies -- Head!

Thanks Eddie for that insight into the Monkee's movie HEAD. I was always a Monkees fan and thought a lot of their songs were classics but to be honest I never knew a lot about their movie until now. I was aware they made HEAD but have never seen it and not sure I will. Looks like a VERY BAD attempt at making a similar Magical Mystery Tour. Nice touch by the way with the YouTube clips you added. It helped with seeing actual footage of the film instead of imagining it which in this case wouldn't have been anything like the real thing. Pretty cool knowing Jack Nicholson was in it but back then he needed the work. I'm surprised Peter Fonda didn't have a cameo. That movie was right up his alley. But the one thing that HEAD proved was that no matter how hard they tried, The Monkees would never come close to being as successful as The Beatles were. Let's face it...if The Beatles had made HEAD, all of us Beatles fans would still be praising the movie...and still flabbergasted that it didn't win an Oscar...LOL

In the small town of my childhood, I went to see every movie that came to town (2 a week). Even at my young age, I was used to psychedelic films, but came away from this one realizing that they were trying WAY too hard to be "cool."

My friends and I liked this movie so much, 20 years ago, we named our band Head.

I'd alwasy assumed that the producers' final revenge on the Monkees was to ensure, in the edit, that the movie made no sense.

I've certainly heard that said of the movies sudden ending.

This was a very strange movie - of course, it is probably much better if you're stoned...