Hey, Hey, It's 50 Years Of The Monkees!
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The surviving members of The Monkees are about to celebrate their 50th anniversary. To mark the occasion, they're releasing a new album, titled Good Times! Here, NPR's Stephen Thompson tells Ari Shapiro about "Me & Magdalena," a new song written for the album by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie.
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Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard wrote a song for The Monkees' new album, titled Good Times! NPR's Stephen Thompson shares "Me & Magdalena" with All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro.
Transcript
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ME AND MAGDALENA")
THE MONKEES: (Singing) Me and Magdalena - we're driving south through Monterey.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Hey, hey, it's The Monkees (laughter). It really is. This is a song called "Me And Magdalena" from The Monkees' new album, which is a phrase I never thought I would say. The album is called "Good Times!" It's coming out Friday to mark the group's 50th anniversary, and NPR Music's Stephen Thompson is all over this. Welcome to the studio. What's going on?
STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE: Yes, there is a new Monkees album 50 years after the start and 30 years after this unlikely, gigantic reunion revival of The Monkees that happened and affected, I think, people of your generation and mine.
SHAPIRO: People in their mid-30s might remember the TV show. I watched it all the time as a kid. Why are these guys recording a new album? Did they just write all this music right now?
THOMPSON: No. About half of this record is older songs that were written for The Monkees but never release in that late-60s, early 70s original hay day. And then there's a collection of new compositions by today's Monkees fans. People like Rivers Cuomo from Weezer wrote a song, Andy Partridge from XTC. And this song is written by Ben Gibbard from Death Cab For Cutie.
SHAPIRO: So these are big names in contemporary popular music writing for a band that is 50 years old. Let's listen to more of this song by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ME AND MAGDALENA")
THE MONKEES: (Singing) Tell me, Magdalena, what do you see in the depths of your night? Do you see a long-lost father? Does he hold you with the hands you remember as a child?
SHAPIRO: This is really sweet and beautiful, which is not what I think of as The Monkees' sound.
THOMPSON: Yeah, The Monkees' sound - I mean, The Monkees were originally devised as kind of a response to The Beatles but a very peppy response to The Beatles. And you listen to this particular song, and it's very poignant. There's a line in the song. It's in the chorus - everything lost will be recovered when you drift into the arms of the undiscovered.
SHAPIRO: Wow. That sounds a lot more like Death Cab For Cutie (laughter).
THOMPSON: It's very...
(CROSSTALK)
SHAPIRO: Ben Gibbard, the writer, comes from.
THOMPSON: Yeah, my immediate response was, wow, this sounds a lot like The Monkees recording a Death Cab For Cutie song. But when you think about it, like, that gives it - there's this almost fatalistic streak to it - a little bit of, like, a twilight-of-our-lives kind of vibe for guys who are, you know, roughly 70 years old.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ME AND MAGDALENA")
THE MONKEES: (Singing) Me and Magdalena.
SHAPIRO: Is the album any good?
THOMPSON: I really, really love this song "Me And Magdalena." It is my favorite of the ones I've heard The others are a little lighter. It's designed to be summerier (ph). I mean, the album is called "Good Times!" - with an exclamation point.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
THOMPSON: For me, it has this one perfect, beautiful song, and the rest is, like, oh, gosh, it's great to hear The Monkees again.
SHAPIRO: Well, just for the nostalgia junkies, let's go out on one of their old ones, huh?
(SOUNDBITE OF THE MONKEES SONG, "I'M A BELIEVER")
SHAPIRO: NPR's Stephen Thompson, thanks so much.
THOMPSON: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I'M A BELIEVER")
THE MONKEES: (Singing) I thought love was only true and fairytales, meant for someone else but not for me. Oh, love was out to get me. That's the way it seemed. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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