Before he became Patti Smith’s lead guitarist, Lenny Kaye compiled the 2 album set, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years from 1965-1968, and was a major influence on punk rock. Rhino Records reissued an expanded version of the set in 1998, with 118 tracks in total. I’m profiling and rating each of these 118 tracks, working backwards.
Track 103: Complication by The Monks
Release Date: 1966
From: Gelnhausen, West Germany
Aphoristical Rating: 9/10
COMPLICATION – The Monks [2:17]
[First pressings were incorrectly titled “Oh, How To Do Now”]
(Gary Burger/Larry Spangler/David Havlicek/Roger Johnston/Thomas Shaw)
Personnel/GARY BURGER: vocals, guitar * DAVE DAY: electric banjo, vocals * LARRY CLARK: organ, vocals * EDDIE SHAW: bass, vocals * ROGER JOHNSTON: drums, vocals
Produced by JIMMY BOWIEN
Recorded in Koln, Germany
Polydor [Germany] single #52951 (3/66)
Like The Sonics last week, The Monks are another band that clearly influenced punk and alternative music – the Dead Kennedys, The Fall, Pere Ubu and the Beastie Boys have all acknowledged them. Where The Sonics were a tight R&B band with some rough edges, The Monks were altogether more frightening and intense. Gary Burger’s vocals feel disembodied, even sweetened by backing harmonies, while the band is pounding and austere. They look even more intense in person, with their hair shaved into monk-style tonsures:
The Monks were formed by a bunch of G.I.s in Germany – while serving in Germany interrupted Elvis Presley’s career, it did launch The Monks. They released the single ‘There She Walks’ as The Torquays, before changing their name to The Monks. They released one highly regarded album, Black Monk Time, in 1966. The band didn’t last long after their first album – faced with a dwindling audience, their management tried to soften their rough edges, asking them to model their new material on The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’. The new singles ‘Cuckoo’ and ‘Love Can Tame the Wild’ failed, and the band split after abandoning a 1967 tour to Vietnam (!) at the last minute.
The original lineup reformed in 1999 to headline the 1960s garage rock event Cavestomp in New York – the first time they’d played in their home country. They officially disbanded in 2007. Burger became the mayor of Turtle River, Minnesota, before passing away in 2014,
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Now this band was a clear inspiration on punk and alternative. I have to say they went the extra mile with that hairstyle.
Is this an early version of the Beat club?
I think he’s pretty similar to Pere Ubu’s David Thomas vocally. Apparently they used to wear nooses around their neck at one point too…
I discovered the Monks before Nuggets, which is unlikely, I know. The album is pretty good, though for mine, “Complication” is the strongest track.
It’s maybe the best-known studio album from a Nuggets act, I would wager. Not the highest-selling at the time, but the one a music nerd is likely to know about.
I do like the efficiency of Black Monk Time!
It’s definitely got some of that efficient German sound in there as well as Porto-punk.
Great song! love the keyboard solo.
The guitarist plays an electric banjo which is cool too.
I went and listened to some of Black Monk Time this afternoon – I agree with one of the commenters that Complications is probably the best on it. The lyrics arent exactly cheery – no wonder half the studio audience on the video is not sure what to do when they start playing. 🙂
They were planning to go to Vietnam and protest the war – sounds like a dangerous tour.
Yeah their first song Monk Time is clearly anti Vietnam war. Totally agree!
When I saw Gelnhausen, West Germany, at first, I thought The Monks were a German band, but you obviously clarified it.
To address Max’s question, “Beat Beat Beat” was another German TV music program and different from Beat-Club.
Sounds like “complication” just about sums up their career! 🙂
Oh YEAH!
It’s one of the best so far.
Man that’s a tough designation amongst so many great tunes (although accurate), so I’ll take it! Until the next song!
Just more treasures. Like a lot about that tune.
It’s got a lot of stuff going on – abrasion of punk, robotic Teutonic sound.
Cool that it was a bunch of GIs stationed in Germany. Break up the monotony.