If you remember in our last episode, anxious Monkees fans were awaiting with bated breath for the release of the Super Deluxe Edition of the ‘Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.’ album, and received the surprise of the set appearing on many digital music platforms for streaming and download purchase. Just as quick as they appeared, the digital music files started disappearing just as quickly. It was later explained that someone at Warners/Rhino goofed and dropped the set by mistake. Fortunately, some fans had the good sense to purchase and download the files and to store them separately before they were all gone to enjoy on their favorite listening devices. Shortly afterwards, Rhino put up a notice that the physical box set would go on sale on October 2nd, 2025, with a video announcement by Andrew Sandoval scheduled for 12 noon EST. And so, the long wait began again.
October 2nd arrived, and another big surprise awaited fans: the box set became immediately available for purchase at 9am EST! Orders for the set started flooding the Rhino/Monkees site. Then at 12 noon, Andrew Sandoval’s message on YouTube aired live with Sandoval unboxing the set and explaining the work put into it and revealing the set’s contents.
At the beginning of the video, Sandoval said that Pisces would be the final entry in the Monkees Super Deluxe Edition series, a disappointment for fans hoping for a SDE box of the 1970 Changes album, the final album released during the initial Monkees period. (It had been explained in earlier discussions that most of the master tapes for Changes have yet to be accounted for, though one of the outtakes, ‘Which Way Do You Want It’, had recently been discovered. There’s always hope that, if not an SDE, perhaps a deluxe edition of Changes might be a future possibility.)
Sandoval opened the seal on the box and revealed its contents: the Stereo and Mono CDs of the ‘Pisces’ album with bonus tracks of additional stereo and mono mixes, 2025 remixes of several of the songs, an alternate stereo version of ‘Riu Chiu’ with handclaps, an alternate mono mix of ‘Daily Nightly’ minus the Moog effects, the full TV mix and mono single mix of ‘Goin’ Down’, a mono mix of ‘Star Collector’ with different Moog effects.
CD three is packed to the Max with backing tracks and Jams including the songs ‘The Story Of Rock And Roll’, ‘Come On In’, ‘Yours Until Tomorrow’, an early version of ‘Can You Dig It’ under the title ‘Tentatively’ and an early acoustic version of ‘A Man Without A Dream’ that Peter Tork submitted for the group.
CD four rounds out the set with more alternate album tracks, the TV version of ‘Riu Chiu’, ‘Salesman’ with Michael Nesmith’s salesman rap, and the TV mixes of ‘Cuddly Toy’, ‘Love Is Only Sleeping’, ‘Goin’ Down’, ‘Star Collector’, ‘What Am I Doing Hangin’ Round’, ‘Daydream Believer’, ‘She Hangs Out’, and the sessions for ‘Riu Chiu’, ‘Don’t Call On Me’ (Chatter Session) and more.
Along with the CDs, the box contains a booklet with Andrew Sandoval’s extensive and informative liner notes containing rare photos from the collection of Joe Russo who collaborated with Sandoval on the huge ‘Smoke-Filled Dreams’ book from Beatland Books, many of the photos taken by Rock photographer and Monkees friend Henry Diltz. An added bonus to the box set is a 45-vinyl single of the single mixes for ‘Love Is Only Sleeping’ and ‘Goin’ Down’ adorned by Henry Diltz’s photos taken from the Chicago Rainbow Room, this being the configuration of the single that was going to be pulled from the ‘Pisces’ album before it was replaced with ‘Daydream Believer’.
Since the “accidental” digital drop of the set that was quickly pulled, the anticipation level for the physical set has been very high, and reportedly, sales have been very brisked. Some fans have reported already receiving their sets.
Rhino High Fidelity Vinyl Edition of the Monkees ‘Pisces’ album.
And the box set is not the only thing getting Monkees fans excited. As part of Rhino’s High Fidelity Vinyl series, a limited-edition version of the ‘Pisces’ album taken from the original master tapes cut by Kevin Gray is also available on 180-Gram heavyweight vinyl, housed in a gatefold jacket with an exclusive insert containing new liner notes by Andrew Sandoval. Numbered and Limited to 5,000 copies, this Rhino exclusive is expected to sellout quickly.
Coming a year before the official 60th anniversary of The Monkees, their fourth album ‘Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd’ is getting the special treatment and attention it deserves. Who knows what’s in store in 2026 when the Monkees 60th anniversary rolls around!
Fred Velez is the author of the books ‘A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You: The Monkees From A Fan’s Perspective’ and ‘A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You 2: The Monkees From International Fan Perspectives’.
Joe Russo is a well-known, long time Monkees fan whose hobby of collecting photographs has put him in good stead in the Monkees fan world. Becoming a fan late in the Monkees career, Joe has accumulated an incredible archive of photos, a few appeared in magazines like Tiger Beat and 16, and many never previously published from various photo libraries. Russo’s collection has been gathered up into a huge 535-page book, ‘Smoke-Filled Dreams: The Unseen Archive of Joe Russo’, published by Beatland Books and edited by Andrew Sandoval.
From ‘Smoke-Filled Dreams: The Unseen Archive of Joe Russo’. Beatland Books, 2024.
‘Smoke-Filled Dreams’ is the Monkees story told in pictures, tracing the history of the band from its inception in 1965 by producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, into the first year of production in 1966 of the Monkees television series, following the group into their early recording sessions, their exciting concert tours, landmark moments like the Emmy Awards, their visits to Paris and England for their 1967 British tour, production photos for the movie ‘Head’ and the ’33 & 1/3 Revolution Per Monkees’ television special, the 1969 period after Peter Tork left the band, into the final year of the Monkees project with appearances on Laugh In and the Hollywood Squares, up to the period Michael Nesmith was beginning his career as a solo artist with the First National Band and the final Monkees album ‘Changes’ with Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones as the project came to its conclusion in 1970.
The book is chockfull of over 700 rare Monkees color and black & white photos. There are many behind the scenes production photos from the television series, the movie ‘Head’ and the ’33 & 1/3’ television special as well as candid shots showing the members of the Monkees at work and relaxing. The photographs from the concert tour are astounding with the Monkees shown putting on an exciting show at arenas packed with screaming hysterical fans. The photos reveal that the Monkees were one of the first major Rock bands of the 1960’s to use giant screens to project film images, an innovative practice used at concerts today.
As with previous Beatland Books releases, this book is available in three different formats: the Super Deluxe Hardback Edition is limited to 500 signed copies by the author in a clamshell protective case with bonus material that includes a set of six postcards, reproducitons of 1967 promotional concert booklets, a replica of the trinket bag from Davy Jones’ Greenwich Village Zilch boutique and a replica table card from the Screen Gems 1966 televison series premiere block party. The signed hardback limited Deluxe Edition is housed in a UV gloss slipcover with more rare unpublished Monkees photos. For those on a tight budget, the unsigned Flexibound Open-End Edition has all the photos contained in the limited Deluxe Editions minus the bonus material.
The photos are taken directly from the original negatives and transparencies and astoundingly reproduced, 90% percent of them never before seen, and printed on high quality paper with several spread-out pages that is the trademark of Beatland Books. At over 500 pages, this is a HEAVY book (Don’t let it fall on any small pets!), that fans will be spending hours thumbing through. As a pictorial history of the Monkees, this is a great time capsule that captures the whirlwind phenomenal excitement that surrounded the group.
‘Smoke-Filled Dreams: The Unseen Archive of Joe Russo’ belongs on the bookshelf alongside the previous editions from the Beatland Books Monkees library. Just make sure your shelf is good and sturdy!
Beatland Books, which has previously published the extensive deluxe rewrite of Andrew Sandoval’s ‘The Monkees: The Day by DayStory’ book, has followed up with another outstanding release with ‘I’m Told I Had A Good Time: The Micky Dolenz Archives – Volume One’.
Sandoval has compiled from the personal archives of Micky Dolenz an incredible collection of photos that chronicles Dolenz’s life and career from his earliest childhood stardom in the 1950’s television series ‘Circus Boy’, into the 1960’s and Micky’s second burst of fame with The Monkees and on till 1977 as he began his career in England as a respected television director.
Photo Copyright Micky Dolenz/Beatland Books.
The nearly 500 pages are packed with astounding photos and memorabilia from Micky’s personal collection, the majority never before published. Micky takes the reader behind the scenes of Circus Boy, the early days of The Monkees on their television set, the movie ‘Head’ and the whirlwind of their wild concert tours, with fantastic photos of Jimi Hendrix as their opening act, hanging out with The Beatles, Stephen Stills, Eric Clapton, Keith Moon and Harry Nilsson among many famous faces and names.
Peter Tork and Jimi Hendix. Photo Copyright Micky Dolenz/Beatland Books.
Throughout the book Dolenz reflects on the many aspects of his life and career with warmth and humor and a fondness for the people he associated with and called his friends. Micky takes you back to those fun, crazy days when he and the other Monkees were briefly in the eye of the hurricane and beyond.
The book is available in three different formats: as a numbered Super Deluxe Hardcover Edition in a special clamshell case with an additional set of prints, a numbered Deluxe Hardcover Edition in a protective slipcase and a less expensive unnumbered Flexibound Open Edition minus extras. Both Deluxe Editions are hand signed by Micky Dolenz. The Deluxe Editions are limited and will be available for a very short time. The Flexibound is an unsigned open edition. The Flexibound edition of ‘The Monkees: The Day By Day Story’ by Andrew Sandoval is also still available in a limited supply.
Beatland Books has prided itself in presenting the book to its highest quality standards with glossy paper in a sturdy bound format. ‘I’m Told I Had A Good Time’ by Micky Dolenz is a book that belongs in the book shelves of any Monkees and 60’s Rock Fan. This is the ultimate Monkees scrapbook, and it’s only volume one!
Fred Velez is the author of the books ‘A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You: The Monkees From A Fan’s Perspective’ and ‘A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You 2: The Monkees From International Fan Perspectives’
Micky Dolenz has a lot piled up on his plate these days. While currently on tour, he has new releases coming up: his already announced Beatland Book, ‘I’m Told I Had A Good Time’, a surprise 7a Records EP ‘Dolenz Sings R.E.M.’, and a video of the first song off the EP of Micky singing ‘Shiny HappyPeople’ comprised of personal home movies produced by Dolenz and Andrew Sandoval who also put the book together.
Original R.E.M. ‘Shiny Happy People’ video with Kate Pierson of the B-52’s.
The 500 page book with tons of photos from Micky’s personal collection and history can now be preordered on the Beatland Books website in three different editions.
The Micky Dolenz version of the R.E.M. song ‘Shiny Happy People’ is now available on the streaming services and for download purchase.
On top of all that, Beatland Books is making available again the flexi bound edition of Andrew Sandoval’s 740 page book ‘The Monkees: The Day by Day Story’, also loaded with many never before seen photos and in-depth information. For those who missed out the first time, now’s the time to get it!
Fred Velez is the author of the books ‘A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You: The Monkees From A Fan’s Perspective’ and ‘A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You 2: The Monkees From International Fan Perspectives’.
Beatland Books is proud to announce the publication of I’m Told I Had A Good Time: The Micky Dolenz Archives, Volume One. Set for release on November 7, 2023, the book is the result of a multi-year excavation of Dolenz’s astonishing personal collection. Over 500 pages, I’m Told I Had A Good Timehighlights this treasure trove of photography, artwork, handwritten lyrics, scripts and assorted ephemera spanning the 1940s through the 1970s. I’m Told I Had A Good Time will be available for preorder in June 2023 and offered in three unique editions: hand-numbered Signed Super Deluxe Edition with bonus content; Numbered Deluxe Hardback Edition; and Unnumbered Flexibound.
The first volume chronicles Dolenz’s childhood in Los Angeles and growth as an actor and performer in Circus Boy, through to his early musical endeavors with such groups as The Spartans and Mickey & The 1-Knighters. In 1965, Micky was cast in The Monkees and he preserved every move they made: from unpublished color shots on the set of their pilot to rare telegrams and keepsakes from their early days. In particular, the group’s most successful period of touring in 1967 is chronicled in-depth with stunning, unpublished images direct from the original negatives. In all, the group’s spectacular impact on record and film and the aftermath is recorded in Volume One up until Micky’s move to the UK in 1977.
Dolenz was not only an avid chronicler of the Monkees’ activities, but also the intensely creative circle around him. Included are never-before-seen images of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones & Ron Wood, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Harry Nilsson, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Alice Cooper, Jack Nicholson, Stephen Stills, David Crosby and Peter Fonda (among others).
Perhaps the most poignant photographs are his images of the other Monkees; Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith are seen at their happiest, captured in the act of music or mischief making. The book also includes images from Micky’s film library, working drafts of the hit song “Randy Scouse Git” and a goldmine of personal mementos. For the text, Dolenz delivers a running commentary culled from new interviews recorded during the discovery process.
For decades, Micky Dolenz’s archives were all but a rumor in the world of pop culture holdings. Now they will be presented in a deluxe fashion: printed in the highest quality and delivered to your door.
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