Black Monk Time (The Monks, 1966)

Who are the anti-Beatles? I'm sure there are plenty of bands and artists who would take pride in being the reverse of the Beatles, but who would legitimately qualify. I thought of this a few years back when I put my iPod on shuffle and heard a track by the Fugs ("War Kills Babies") sandwiched by two Beatles tracks and being amazed that these songs could even exist on the same device.

My nominees for the anti-Beatles are (1) the Deviants, (2) the Fugs, and, of course, (3) the Monks. I'm not picking the Rolling Stones or other British Invasion bands because even though they were all marketed as Beatles alternatives, no amount of image difference can mask that they were all fighting over the same audience with the same basic interest in harmonious pop. I'm not pick the Sex Pistols, 2Pac, Metallica, etc. because none of those bands were around at the same time as the Beatles. My picks were chosen with the mind that the anti-Beatles should be from the early-mid 1960's, be coarse and dissonant where the Beatles were sweet and melodic, and be utterly devoid of screaming fans. Although slightly late to the party, the Deviants made a mess of things with their first album, Ptoof!, which rapidly descended into mostly inarticulate mumbling. Meanwhile, across the pond, the Fugs adopted a raw, minimal anything-goes style that didn't shy away from a handful of shrewdly placed F-bombs. And then there are the Monks.

For those who haven't heard of the Monks, they are probably one of the greatest WTF bands of all time. They were five Americans stationed in Germany who found their way into the music scene there. Not content to just call themselves "The Monks" (and I'm not sure if "Monkees" ever crossed their minds) they performed with habits and tonsures. They poured all of their instrumentation into the rhythm section, often performing as a five-piece rhythm section of drums, organ, guitar, banjo, and bass (which was frequently the loudest instrument outside of their own voices). The performed songs like "Shut Up" and "I Hate You" and most of the lyrics involved carnal relations with women in the basest of terms.

There are quite a few variations of this album kicking around. All of them (I think) have the album tracks from Black Monk Time, while my particular copy carries most, but not all of the bonus tracks and for some reason drops "Black" from the title but keeps the original minimalist cover.

Like many similar bands, the Monks promptly drifted apart by 1967 into menial jobs, homelessness and other depressing stories. The next Monks album wouldn't hit until 2000, a live reunion effort that capitalized on their rediscovery during the 1990's. The song "I Hate You" appeared in The Big Lebowski, but was shamefully absent from the soundtrack. Unfortunately, there are now only two Monks remaining and they are probably more into their retirement than making another album. For more information, check out the interesting documentary Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback.