Posted on 04/10/2020 8:31:35 PM PDT by DallasBiff
Never knew that Carole King wrote this song. Epitomized the late 60's, and was a big hit for The Monkee's
For the first time in my life, the teachers were young and enthusiastic. There were even male teachers, which I had never seen before except in band. The school was relatively new, bright and well-lit, with windows taking up one entire wall of each classroom.
For the first time in my life, we lived in a house that my parents owned, right across the street from my new school.
Also, for the first time in my life, I had a lot of friends. I had had one or two friends before, but suddenly I had six or eight. I thought the suburb to which we had moved was like Heaven, literally.
When I heard Another Pleasant Valley Sunday on the radio, I thought it was actually about my experience; I knew it didn't describe the exact suburban neighborhood in which I now lived, but the types of homes with big lawns described in the song could be found in a newer subdivision that some of my new friends lived in. I didn't know anyone with "a TV in every room," but I thought that was just an exaggeration.
The cynicism of the song completely went over my head. To me, it sounded like an actual description of the delightful new world to which my parents had brought me. To say I felt "thankful" would be an understatement.
There were several boys in my homeroom who collected Monkees baseball cards that came in some kind of gum package. If you collected them all, they formed a mosaic poster of the band. At least one boy had gotten the whole poster; I later found out that his parents owned several big department stores in the town and nearby city. There were several other quite wealthy children in my homeroom, although I had no idea of "rich kids" at that time, having never known such a person before. I didn't begin to realize that I had classmates who came from a lot of money until I was in high school.
Supposedly inspired by a sign for Pleasant Valley Way, a major street in my home town of West Orange, NJ
Everyone posting on this thread will reveal his age.
I believe the lyrics were by Gerry Goffin. Goffin and King were a great songwriting team. The demo of this song is the best version.
Yeah, true. It wasn't on the Top 40 very long. Terrific music rotated on and off the radio airplay mix at an incredible rate back then.
The period from about 1964 until 1974 was unbelievable for pop music. Pretty much began (for me anyway) with Simon and Garfunkel and the other "folkies," and ended with disco in 1974 or '75.
The cynicism of the song completely went over my head. To me, it sounded like an actual description of the delightful new world to which my parents had brought me. To say I felt "thankful" would be an understatement.
I also didn't catch the cynicism and had a similar reaction. To me, the song was a description of a neighborhood whose inhabitants were enjoying the fruits of their labor in a free society, and I had in mind my own neighbors in Southern California, the world's fastest growing economy at the time.
Going Wild (1958)
Enjoyed your thoughts on this. I knew the song was cynical, but liked the music.
Even as a kid, I thought it was whiny for author to complain about how hard life was.
A lot of the kids today would love to have the times we had in the sixties, prior to Viet Nam and the drug culture.
Correct. I think they were married. They wrote a lot of songs for the Monkees.
Neil Diamond wrote “I’m a Believer”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJFTVKOQKQA
Carol wrote a lot of music, very prolific - a one-woman music factory.
The suburbs represent everything Democrats despise and seek to destroy - marriage, family, churches, prosperity, private ownership, freedom from crime and oppression, etc.
To them, King and Goffin, New Jersey probably seemed like some sort of shrink-wrapped plastic joke of a place to live.
Steely Dan's Donald Fagen was growing up there (in suburban North Jersey) at the same time this song was written, and his ambivalence toward New Jersey suburban life provided a lot of thematic material for his music later on.
Also in the movies version of Prisoner of Second Avenue, North Jersey is portrayed as this sort of unreal place of enormous space and quiet, as seen by New Yorkers. That theme enters into other movies of course; Broadway Danny Rose being another example.
Wore out the Monkees 45. King plays and sings it well.
Last Train To Clarksville was one of their best. Anyone remember hearing Harper Valley P.T.A on AM?
Sure. The expression "socked it to the Harper Valley PTA" was reminiscent of Laugh In and "sock it to me," which was on at the time the song came out.
I'm 55, learned about The Monkees in the early 70's after the Bugs Bunny show on Saturday mornings on CBS.
She’s been on my s-list since she played “You’ve Got a Friend” for Fidel.
I rest my case.
Touche.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.