The Monkees by Andrew Sandoval

I got this book for my birthday, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is a hardcore Monkees fan. The book goes on a day-by-day, year-by-year, chronicle of their lives. It gives exact dates of recording sessions, including who was there, what was recorded, who played which instrument, that kind of stuff. The book cover mentions the hundreds of "unreleased" photographs, which are included. However, the photographs (which are in color on the front and back cover) are solely in black and white, which really is a drag. There are some pictures (namely a photo of Mickey dressed in the full retro-kitsch idea of what a Native American Indian Chief was at the time, while playing a guitar in the studio. A picture like that, in full page and in color, could be one of the best photographs in the entire lexicon of Monkees photographs.

There's an amazing wealth of photographs included though, including many that need mention. There's a fantastic one, on page 199 of Mickey Dolenz's wedding to Samantha Juste in the backyard of their home in Laurel Canyon. Another is a photo of the group (sans Peter Tork, who had left the group at this point) on stage with Johnny Cash in a still from his show. There's a quite a trove of photographs from the filming of the Head movie that I really enjoyed, and showed quite a few celebrities with the Monkees as a whole or individually. Included are Lulu, June Fairchild, Sonny Liston, Jack Nicholson (pre-Easy Rider) and scores of others.

I would say that for a serious Monkees fan, this is a book that they'll wonder how thy did without, especially those interested in their work in the studio (both recording and television) and those interested in the goings-on around them. For a casual fan though, I think this book would be overwhemling and difficult to get into.

I would rate it a 5 out of 5 but only for the series Monkees fan. For a casual fan, I would rate it 3 out of 5.