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“Hey, hey we’re the Monkees/And people say we monkey around/But we’re too busy singing/To put anybody down.”

“Hey hey we are the Monkees/You know we love to please/ A manufactured image with no philosophies /. . . Hey hey we are the Monkees/We’ve said it all before/ The money’s in, we’re made of tin/ We’re here to give you more.”

The subject of this week’s column occupies an unusual spot at the intersection of Chapter Two Lane and Sole Criterion Boulevard (DVD Spine #544). Head was released mere months after the wildly popular and culturally influential television series it was based on - The Monkees - had ended a successful 57 episode two-season run on NBC (1966-1968), and yet the movie flopped horribly. The soundtrack album ended both a string of five successfully charting LPs (four # 1s and a top three over an 18 month period) and numerous hit singles (nearly a dozen top 40s, including three # 1s over the same stretch) for the band in question. If I may be allowed some hyperbole, in the annals of deeply felt works of art that double as intentional artistic suicide (by pulling a sea change on fans) it ranks with George Michael’s 1990 album Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1 for replacing a goodtime rock n’ roll party with something infinitely deeper and darker . . .and a lot less “fun.”

The key advertisement on television for the film consisted of a man’s deadpan face held for 30 seconds and the word “Head,” flashed onscreen. (And yes, an Andy Warhol film in which a man received a blowjob while the camera remained focused entirely on his facial reactions inspired that ad. So if you hear the title and think oral sex, you’ve cracked at least one of the multiple meanings.)

The film was conceived by the creators of the show, who would go on to create a film studio and write, produce, direct, and/or help shape some of the most challenging American cinema of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, including Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Drive, He Said, The Last Picture Show, and The King of Marvin Gardens. Jack Nicholson is co-credited with the screenplay. Thematically and chronologically, in its subtext of a youth culture that has been crushed by both the older generation and its own innate predisposition towards self-destruction, Head is the missing link between Bonnie & Clyde and Zabriskie Point, and, barring the “ultimate trip” that was/is 2001: A Space Odyssey, it probably played more mind (head?) games on its intended audience (of teenyboppers) than any other big studio release of the year.

As seems to be my custom for most movies based on successful television shows, I have never seen an episode of The Monkees. I have also never glimpsed the 1969 television special 33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee, which I understand simply performs further desecration on the star image that the band sought to torpedo with Head. I approach this consideration of Head as someone who is somewhat familiar with the band’s key songs, the reputation of their television show as an entertaining rollick that was somewhat ahead of its time, and the oft-lodged complaint/myth that they don’t deserve serious consideration because they were simply a fabricated American response to the success of The Beatles.

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