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Discoveries of a Pop Music Archaeologist

“Love Is Only Sleeping”: 7/4 Time Can Be Catchy

22 Words has a fun piece that identifies six prominent pieces of pop propelled by unusual time signatures, the most famous likely being Pink Floyd’s “Money,” whose opening bass line is played in 7/4 time.

I’m always surprised when the topic of The Monkees comes up in conversation, and I get the blank stare from fellow music fanatics at the mention of “Love Is Only Sleeping.”   How can so many people not know that great opening guitar riff?   In 7/4 time, no less:

“Love Is Only Sleeping”

The Monkees (1967)

Interesting to see how many YouTube audio clips there are of “Love Is Only Sleeping” as recorded by The Monkees – at least twenty, almost certainly more – but all of them with relatively low viewership numbers (in the hundreds and low thousands).  Clearly, there are still vast stretches of the world’s population that appear to be wholly unfamiliar with this classic Barry MannCynthia Weil composition.

According to this YouTube contributor

“Love Is Only Sleeping” was not originally intended to be included on Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd., as the song was to be issued as a single instead.  After a manufacturing error caused some delays, Colgems rethought the strategy and released the more commercial “Daydream Believer” as the single instead, with “Goin’ Down” as its B-side.  Regrettably, “Love Is Only Sleeping” never got a single release in the US and major countries.

Thus, you can try in vain, but Googling the phrase “Love Is Only Sleeping” will yield no images whatsoever of the forbidden 45 here in the US.  As with Johnny Cash’s “Five Minutes to Live,” we are left with the overwhelming heartbreak of an obvious A-side forever in search of a good home — with the exception of Portugal and Mexico, where “Love Is Only Sleeping” served as the lead-off track on a 4-song EP (also used as a B-side in the Philippines –  not to mention on “bootleg” releases in Iran and Thailand).

News items From Monkees Monthly, UK publication

Monkees UK Press IMonkees UK Press II

Mexico

1968

Various web sources assert pioneering synthesist, Micky Dolenz, as having played Moog on “Love Is Only Sleeping” — in addition to pop masterpiece, “Daily Nightly” — while iTunes states Mike Nesmith to have served as producer.

Iran

1968

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2 Responses

  1. MeTV has the Monkees series in rotation. Hopefully some of these great songs will be revived by those of us lived during that era and new fans. Yes Love is Only Sleeping and Daily Nightly are both fantastic songs. Working now on learning the intro and would love to purchase a 12-String Blonde Gretsch Guitar that Mike played.

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