Pleasant Valley Sunday

The plastic artificial nature of suburban life. The empty and impersonal interactions of modernity.

Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote this about how stagnant life is in West Orange NJ. This is where they lived during their employment at the famous Brill Building in the late 60's. To correct some errors involving the musicians on the Monkees recording, Mike Nesmith played lead guitar and harmony vocals, Peter Tork played piano, Micky did lead vocals, Davy played maracas and sang backing vocals, Chip Douglas was on bass, Bill Chadwick played acoustic guitar and Eddie Hoh was on drums.

Monkees' best...great lyrics, vocals & subject. Highly underrated tune.

The meaning of this song was about a Vietnam Vet coming home with what was then called shell shock (now called PTSD). For clrification of this I shall give you the details in order: "The local rock group down the street is trying hard to learn their song" This refers to all the garage band songs that he listened to during the "raids/ actions. The chopper pilots played rock music VERY loud on speakers pointing out from the chopper to distract/disorientate/&annoy the enemy as guys jumped out to actions.

"They serenade the local squire who just came out to mow his lawn" Again this refers to being droped into an action area and the "local squire" was the enemy out to mow down the troops jumping from the chopper!

"Another Pleasant Valley Sunday" is referring to how beautiful and peaceful the valleys all seemed as you dropped in to battle actions.

"Charcoal burning everywhere" is about the locals having small cooking fires that were quite often charcoals or were only left as charcoal fires after killing the locals!

"Rows of houses that are all the same, And no one seems to care!" refers to the little villages all looking the same after about your third or fourth action (That was within the first week to 10 days of arrival in country!) and after that initial disconnect from the job of killing any signs of "enemy" you become disconnected from all sense of humanity so as to mentally cope with the job of a Soldier or Marine there!

"Mrs Grey is proud today because her roses are in bloom" First off, Mrs "Grey" refers to the PT boats that were of course battleship grey. And the "roses" are the bursts of shots that ring out into the jungle that spray blood from the bodies of "enemy" bodies that would fly into the air just a bit when shot with the high powered boat guns!

"Mr Green is so serene he's got a TV in every room!" Refers to the choppers that were Army green and could look down at and into the little villages from rather far away. "every room" was every village enemy or not!

"Another Pleasant Valley Sunday here in status symbol land" Refers to it's just another day, another drop in action and it was all about the stats and status that was to be sent back to HQ to get the next action mission!

"Mothers complain about how hard life is, and the kids just don't understand" Was about the "Mothers" AKA Motherfckrs" at HQ complaining about every little detail not reported and not actually knowing what was happening in the field. And of course "the kids" were the Soldiers and Marines who were mostly just fresh kids shipped in to replace the ones killed off! (Their names are ALL on the WALL in DC now!)

"The creature comfort goals, they only numb my soul, they make it hard for me to see." Refers to the pot and other drugs everyone used to "numb" to the daily and the lose of your own humanity to do the job!

And of course it continued every day you were there in "Status symbol land" with "charcoal burning everywhere" showing the world what a powerful nation the USA was so it all just fades into "Another Pleasant Valley Sunday Another Pleasant Valley Sunday Another Pleasant Valley Sunday Another Pleasant Valley Sunday"

So of course everything when you did get home (IF you did get home!) was mirrored in your mind so strongly in the simple suburban life that only saw this war from their TV sets news every night like it was some kind of TV Drama and not the horrors of WAR that you'd had to go through!

Sorry I had to bring such a beautiful song to the real meaning behind the lyrics to those who "just don't understand"! Scotty

Agreed. One of my favourite Monkees songs!

one of them said in an interview that it's about an asylum, but I don't really buy that

in an interview, Peter Tork said that he played keyboards and Mike Nesmith played bass on this - these guys were the real deal, while Dolenz and Jones were the "frontmen" - Peter was a friend of Steven Stills (who tried out for the Monkees) and lent him some cash at one point to help get CSN underway

in an interview, Peter Tork said that he played keyboards and Mike Nesmith played bass on this - these guys were the real deal, while Dolenz and Jones were the "frontmen" - Peter was a friend of Steven Stills (who tried out for the Monkees) and lent him some cash at one point to help get CSN underway

Just a secondary note: There was a verse that didn't make it to the recording that was "Mr Blue's got lots to do, he'll drop in soon!" That verse referred to the Air Force bombers that would be expected but often were so over booked that they didn't make it to many "cover and collect intel" missions! And for those who may wonder why the Navy PT boat guys were referred to as "Mrs Grey" it was because the Soldiers and Marines often called the Sailors on their somewhat "safer" boats the "Ladies" of the navy! Scotty

A punk anthem, years before punk - written by an American - puts us rebellious Brits to shame. Compare the lyrics with the Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap. or Springsteen's Jungleland