Chip talks about the making of “Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd.”
From Tiger Beat Presents Monkee Spectacular #10, February 1968
Chip Douglas, at just 25, is one of today’s brightest producers and has produced both the Monkees’ albums, “Headquarters” and “Pisces, Aquarius Capricorn and Jones, Ltd.” Chip was born in San Francisco, California and moved to Hawaii with his family when he was three years old. His father was a doctor on a sugar plantation on the North Shore of Oahu.
When Chip was older he came to Los Angeles and joined the MFQ (Modern Folk Quartet.” He later played bass for the Turtles and last year was asked by the Monkees to do their record producing. Many hours went into the latest and greatest album on Colgems; and Chip recounts the interesting details below.
MS: How long did you and the Monkees work on the new album?
CD: Well, really it’s been on and off since we finished the last one.
MS: Were there any big plans made before you started actual work on it?
CD: No, there’s never any chance to plan exactly what you want to do, you just do what has to be done. Recording comes third on the list as far as the Monkees go. First is shooting the TV show, then touring, and finally we squeeze in a little recording time.
MS: Was it hard recording the album in different cities?
CD: It took a while to get use to each studio maybe a couple of hours more than usual. For the most part they were on tour and doing a lot of singing, so the vocals came off pretty good. We only recorded vocals on the road and they came out a lot better because the boys were doing a lot of singing and their voices were used to it, so they could hit a lot higher notes.
MS: Why did you decide to leave in the talking before the songs start?
CD: We probably shouldn’t have left it on. “Daydream Believer.” The disc jockeys don’t like the talking at the beginning, because it’s hard to queue up. I just mixed everything down for an album. I wasn’t thinking about singles. Then, they decided to put “Daydream Believer” out as a single. I completely forgot about the talking intro on that but it’s just as well anyway.
We try to leave as much of the talking bits on as possible, because it’s a little something extra for the listener. I think the Monkees should do a lot more with that sort of thing. I think it would be groovy if they had about six numbers where they weren’t even singing–just talking and doing bits. Hank, our engineer and I went over some of the leftover tapes the other day and there’s a lot of funny stuff left. There probably go on to the next album for sure.
MS: How did you come to use a Moog synthesizer on the album?
CD: Micky found it. He heard of it somehow and he went over to some guy’s house who had one. Micky has been interested in electronic music for some time. The guy who had the Moog did the score for “Forbidden Planet” some years ago and he was showing it to Micky. The Moog synthesizer is an electronic thing which duplicates any kind of sound. So, Micky bought one. He played it on one tune, and we all dug it. Then we thought it would be kind of neat to have a jazz solo on this other tune, so we got Paul Beaver, the guy who built it, to come down and play it. He does some work around Los Angeles with his Moog, like he did the news breaks for KHJ radio and the sounds at the end of Screen Gems films are done with the Moog synthesizer. It’s just breaking into pop music.
MS: Did the Monkees have fun experimenting with it?
CD: Micky was having a ball on this tune “Daily, Nightly” so we let him go four times on it, and just kept overdubbing stuff all over the place. Then later we sorted it out on the tape and I just brought up the best parts on the final track.
MS: Who chose the name for the album?
CD: I don’t remember who it was exactly. It seems that one of the Monkees was on the phone and Lester Sill, who publishes their music, and I were discussing what we were going to call the album. Someone had thought of the idea “Monkees 4 U.” But then one of the Monkees came up with “Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Capricorn, Ltd.” For some reason, I don’t know how it started, the name just popped up from nowhere in the office and someone said, “How about Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd.?” I laughed and I thought, “That’s great!” All the Monkees thought it sounded groovy, so that’s what they called it.
MS: Can you recall any funny incidents while recording this album?
CD: There was the time that Ann Moses and her friend came in and clapped on “Daydream Believer” and that was pretty funny, because we had to do it several times because you have to clap a special way. We had many, many hilarious hours riding to and from the studio in New York.
The scene with the girls following the limousines was incredible. They’d follow us all the way into downtown New York. Once a little girl got in the limousine with Davy and she didn’t even know what to do. She just sort of jumped in there she was face-to-face with David Jones for the first time! And Davy had one of those shocked looks on his face. She didn’t know what to do, so finally she grabbed him and locked her arms around him and wouldn’t let go. Finally, we let her out a little way away from the crowds, I’ll never forget that!
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