"If I Ever Get To Saginaw Again" - The Monkees (1968-69)


By 1968, The Monkees TV show was winding down and the band began filming their first and only full length feature film "Head". They had also abandoned the "group unity" approach to recording and resorted back to the early days of having session players lay down the recording tracks. This time, it would be under their own direction. Every so often they would add guitars and such but- essentially- they slipped back to being the same fake studio band they were in 1966. back then, this was common practice for many units but The Monkees are always the guys who get the short end of the stick with all that.

The basic tracks for "If I Ever Get To Saginaw Again" were recorded in March, 1968 and remained unfinished until January and March of the following year when strings and a new electric lead guitar were added. Michael Nesmith was then ushered in to sing the lead vocal. The reason behind all this activity was that Glenn Campbell had been doing rather well with his "Galveston" and "Wichita Lineman" type of material. The powers that be at Colgems Records felt they might be able to tap into that same style with this tune. That is, until they realized the squeaky-clean-image Monkees should not release a song with references to pre-marital sex. With that in mind, "If I Ever Get To Saginaw Again" was relegated to the vaults and languished there until January, 1990 when it was released on the rarities collection "Missing Links 2".

By the way, happy 73rd birthday to Peter Tork.


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