WHY CAN’T TEENAGE MAGAZINES BE INTELLECTUAL?

S A T U R D A Y,   7  J A N

Washed my hair (it was rather difficult this time) then did my one-hour essay at home – part of Eng. Lang. mocks. I did the one on the teenage magazine, it turned out to be quite fun. I wrote all about how I’d make it a unique magazine by making it more intelligent than all the others on the British market – it could help produce a much more lively-minded lot of future parents. Rave is better than Jackie but really I do think it’s incredible there isn’t one magazine around for teenagers that deals with anything outside pop, fashion and love-stories. What about homelessness sometimes, or the Viet-Nam War.

After lunch did Latin – ugh. Ate millions of Callard & Bowser nougats.

Chump made me a super pink rose with a green stalk and leaves all out of tissue paper. Then we saw 'The Monkees'. I think Wool Hat’s the funniest, but Mickey’s our favourite, by far. 

Ma and Pa went to Prue Fox-Scott’s cocktail party. They came back at 9.15 and were pretty merry the rest of the evening – too much drink! Ma came up later and looked through ‘Salut les Copains’. I showed her this ghastly bra advertisement which says (among other things) “La peau devient souple et élastique.” We were killing ourselves!

I’m so happy – we’re going to the Boat Show next Friday instead.

“Were the Monkees the new Beatles?”

Launched in 1965 as a US sitcom, the Monkees were (mis)sold as America’s answer to the Fab Four. For which they were then derided. However, five months after the series started, ‘Wool Hat’ (Mike Nesmith) let slip that the group did not play the instruments on their records, and suggested The Saturday Evening Post tell the world they were synthetic "because, damn it, we are.”

The Monkees, in spite of their 'fake pop' credentials, were anti establishment and anti war. Yet, according to psychobabble200,  "the Monkees couldn't buy themselves a lick of praise from the press or the increasing snobby rock audience." In the end, they were championed by Frank Zappa, John Lennon, Eric Burdon and Jerry Garcia. And they introduced Jimi Hendrix to America. 

I thought the Monkees were funny, articulate and endearing. By 1967 they were outselling the Beatles and the Stones combined. I still love their songs - especially this one.