July 13, 2003
DAYDREAM BELIEVER
SOSHITE ONGAKUGA HAJIMARU
(TV TOKYO aired on July 13, 2003)
DJ: David Jones, CD: Chip Douglas, JS: John Stewart.
DJ: It¡Çs one of those songs that [? you can ?] play to your grandkids. I know I¡Çll play it to mine!
DJ: So, you know, all those people that have had that success are grateful and are professional enough to be able to ¡Ä to continue the performance. But not everybody has that song that people can identify with. It¡Çs like having a foot in the door. Everyone would say ¡ÈHey! The Monkees! Hey hey we¡Çre the Monkees!¡É, and also say ¡ÈDaydream Believer! Cheer up, sleepy Jean¡Ä¡É. And I go, ¡ÈWow, this is amazing!¡É
DJ: You know, success is not to be measured with the position you reach in life but the obstacles you overcome to reach that success. So it was hurtful [? for ?] twenty-year-olds to hear [the newspapers say] ¡Èthey can¡Çt do this¡É ¡Èthey can¡Çt do that¡É.
DJ: When we started recording, the first albums ¡ÈThe Monkees¡É and ¡ÈHere Come the Monkees¡É, the number two album, because of the criticism that we didn¡Çt play, we didn¡Çt sing, and we didn¡Çt write songs, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork said ¡ÈWe want to make the next album. We want to be the ones that are responsible for the music.
CD: Welcome to Hawaiian acres! ¡Ä [? (talking to someone) ?] ¡Ä Come in, come in!
CD: Yes, in particular, Mike Nesmith was a fan of the Modern Folk Quartet, my first group. He was from the folk music era too and he liked folk music, so he watched our group many times before he became a Monkee. And so he particularly, I guess, liked me and thought I could ¡Ä because I was the arranger ¡Ä one of the arrangers in the Modern Folk Quartet, and he thought that I could work with himself so he approached me and said ¡ÈWe need someone to be in charge of the four of us, and I think you can do it.¡É
CD: Prior to that they had other people in the background and things like that but I ¡Ä that was ¡Ä our criteria was only they were always playing their own instruments they were ¡Ä I made sure that they always sang on this record, nobody else.
DJ: We¡Çd be going at two in the morning. I¡Çd wake up at three in the morning [? because ?] I was going to the studio. ¡ÈChip, I¡Çll meet you in the studio!¡É ¡ÈOK!¡É. So we¡Çd go and sing ¡Ä we¡Çd go play. Then there was a period when we all worked together. And he was very very ¡Ä fatherly in his approach and he was very respectful to Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork and their opinions as to how they wanted to be presented or remembered. So I would say Chip Douglas, to me, was probably the right producer for the Monkees.
DJ: So when Chip Douglas asked me what I thought about Daydream Believer, I thought he was saying, ¡ÈDo you think we should drop this song from the album?¡É But what he was saying was ¡ÈDo you think this is going to be the single?¡É And I was saying ¡ÈYeah, get rid of that song now. We¡Çll just throw that one out!¡É
CD: Great shows! All of them. Great song.
JS: Chip said ¡ÈI¡Çm recording the Monkees. Do you have anything for them?¡É So I grabbed the guitar and took Chip aside and played him Daydream Believer. And he said ¡ÈYeah, that¡Çs the one,¡É and [? I gave it ?] immediately, gave it to Chip. [? And he said ?] ¡ÈWe¡Çre going in.¡É
JS: Brilliant having Davy do it. If they had Micky or Peter Tork¡Ä. He knew he had [? the label to get to?] the girls. It was casting. It was good casting.
DJ: And this was simplicity. This was a fairy fantasy, you know, song. It wasn¡Çt a heavy rock, it was ¡Ä you know, lyrics that were, you know, sort of, ground-breaking. It was¡Ä. ¡ÈDaydream believer and a home-coming queen,¡É ¡ÈI can hide beneath the wings of a bluebird as it sings¡É ¡Ä What does that mean? It¡Çs happy. It¡Çs nice. It¡Çs ¡Ä light.
DJ: I understand that John Stewart, who wrote the song, was, kind of, a little bit upset ¡Ä the fact that we actually changed a lyric. I¡Çm not sure whether he told you this, but he used to say ¡ÈNow you know how funky I can be,¡É and we¡Çd say ¡ÈNow you know how happy I can be.¡É Because ¡Èfunky¡É was like¡Ä ¡Èfunky¡É was like ¡Èthe sixties¡É, it was a sixties word, so we thought it would be ¡Ä confine the song to that particular era. So I changed the lyric.
JS: Yeah, see, he is a cute little guy, and with ¡Èfunky¡É, it could be something nasty. They didn¡Çt know at all if they wanted to say any nasty things. It was not a nasty word. In my opinion, ¡Èhappy¡É is the nasty word.
JS: A dreamer in school, he still is. He is a dreamer and thinks about new worlds, change, and other things to do. And she was the home-coming queen, she was the beauty of the school before she married him. And now we have an American life. It doesn¡Çt matter if you are the home-coming queen, you are wife. He¡Çs got to make the money, and saying ¡ÈLet¡Çs make the best of it¡É, you know, ¡ÈYou once thought of me as a white knight on his steed,¡É which obviously was before, ¡Ènow you know how funky I can be,¡É which was, you know, ¡ÈI¡Çm just a guy [? who ?] leaves his socks on the TV¡É. I can be ¡Ä But ¡Èour good times start and end without a dollar one to spend, but how much, baby, do we really need?¡É, you know, ¡Èit¡Çs not the money, it¡Çs us. Cheer up, sleepy Jean.¡É And to me, it was very clear in my own A.D.D. mind.
DJ: You know, I remember recording the record Daydream Believer in the studio and all of a sudden, there was a pizza delivery. And what had happened was, a fan had actually gone and bought a pizza, and gone to the costume shop and put on an outfit, Pizza man ? we deliver! And came to the studio and said, ¡ÈI have a pizza for the Monkees.¡É ¡ÈOh, well, come on in!¡É And she comes in there and obviously and opens it up. And ¡ÈOh, who ordered the pizza??¡É ¡ÈYou?¡É ¡ÈNo, not me. You?¡É ¡ÈNo¡É, ¡ÈYou?¡É ¡ÈNo¡É ¡Ä ¡ÈNo¡É ¡ÈNo¡É ¡ÈNo¡É¡Ä. And the little girl said, ¡ÈI ordered the pizza!¡É and immediately fainted, you know! So, I mean, Chip and the boys will tell you their own stories, but I remember that being as one of the things that happened in the studio ? a young girl delivered a pizza that she had bought for us!
DJ: I feel very lucky to have even been a part of this song, and I guess I will always sing it, you know. I guess I¡Çm a daydream believer
JS: My great love for America is the love of the people of America. I have no use for the government of America, I¡Çve no use for the corporate [? ?] of America, I¡Çve no use for the money venture of America, it is the people of America. At one time we were great but [? we are not so great ?], so I sing about the people. I¡Çm singing to them and me and my family. Music is my [? ?], music is my bliss, music is what ¡Ä music is what I do, music is why I¡Çm here. It¡Çs a ¡Ä it is the end of the rainbow. It is the rainbow.
Japanese version will be ready soon.
Transcript of comments, transcribed by Chie Hama.
Note: [? ?] indicates word/s not clearly or not at all audible due to the fact that all have Japanese voices dubbed over the original comments.