REVIEW: SMOKE FILLED DREAMS – NEW BEATLAND MONKEES PHOTO BOOK

Joe Russo is a well-known, long time Monkees fan whose hobby of collecting photographs has put him in good stead in the Monkees fan world. Becoming a fan late in the Monkees career, Joe has accumulated an incredible archive of photos, a few appeared in magazines like Tiger Beat and 16, and many never previously published from various photo libraries. Russo’s collection has been gathered up into a huge 535-page book, ‘Smoke-Filled Dreams: The Unseen Archive of Joe Russo’, published by Beatland Books and edited by Andrew Sandoval.

‘Smoke-Filled Dreams’ is the Monkees story told in pictures, tracing the history of the band from its inception in 1965 by producers  Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, into the first year of production in 1966 of the Monkees television series, following the group into their early recording sessions, their exciting concert tours, landmark moments like the Emmy Awards, their visits to Paris and England for their 1967 British tour, production photos for the movie ‘Head’ and the ’33 & 1/3 Revolution Per Monkees’ television special, the 1969 period after Peter Tork left the band, into the final year of the Monkees project with appearances on Laugh In and the Hollywood Squares, up to the period Michael Nesmith was beginning his career as a solo artist with the First National Band and the final Monkees album ‘Changes’ with Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones as the project came to its conclusion in 1970.

The book is chockfull of over 700 rare Monkees color and black & white photos. There are many behind the scenes production photos from the television series, the movie ‘Head’ and the ’33 & 1/3’ television special as well as candid shots showing the members of the Monkees at work and relaxing. The photographs from the concert tour are astounding with the Monkees shown putting on an exciting show at arenas packed with screaming hysterical fans. The photos reveal that the Monkees were one of the first major Rock bands of the 1960’s to use giant screens to project film images, an innovative practice used at concerts today.

As with previous Beatland Books releases, this book is available in three different formats: the Super Deluxe Hardback Edition is limited to 500 signed copies by the author in a clamshell protective case with bonus material that includes a set of six postcards, reproducitons of 1967 promotional concert booklets, a replica of the trinket bag from Davy Jones’ Greenwich Village Zilch boutique and a replica table card from the Screen Gems 1966 televison series premiere block party. The signed hardback limited Deluxe Edition is housed in a UV gloss slipcover with more rare unpublished Monkees photos. For those on a tight budget, the unsigned Flexibound Open-End Edition has all the photos contained in the limited Deluxe Editions minus the bonus material.

The photos are taken directly from the original negatives and transparencies and astoundingly reproduced, 90% percent of them never before seen, and printed on high quality paper with several spread-out pages that is the trademark of Beatland Books. At over 500 pages, this is a HEAVY book (Don’t let it fall on any small pets!), that fans will be spending hours thumbing through. As a pictorial history of the Monkees, this is a great time capsule that captures the whirlwind phenomenal excitement that surrounded the group.

‘Smoke-Filled Dreams: The Unseen Archive of Joe Russo’ belongs on the bookshelf alongside the previous editions from the Beatland Books Monkees library. Just make sure your shelf is good and sturdy!

Beatland Books Order Link: https://beatlandbooks.com

Fred Velez, 2024.