In preparing this review, I became aware that "Daydream Believer" had been altered and had become a compromised facsimile of what its songwriter, John Stewart, had intended. Mind you, only one word had been changed but it meant enough that Stewart was unhappy, arguing that the line it had been used in no longer made any sense. But then, as Tom Breihan has pointed out, he ceased complaining when the royalty cheques started coming in. (It's safe to say he's made a good living from just this one hit)
The line had originally been "you once thought of me as a white knight on a steed, now you know how funky I could be" but then it was changed to "...now you know how happy I could be". In a song supposedly about a young man coming to terms with the end of a relationship, I can understand why Stewart wasn't terribly thrilled. Still, funky? A song that with a serious groove or something that smells bad? I guess it was meant to be the latter: he was once a perfect boyfriend and now all his flaws have been exposed, presumably including farting in bed, toxic morning breath, B.O., poor hygiene and/or smelly feet (but not limited to them).
I must say, I never noticed the fact that the line doesn't make sense. I don't know about you but I don't look to The Monkees for lyrical thoughtfulness. "Daydream Believer" has enough going for it that the word salad lyrics never harmed it — that is until now. Having been exposed to the words having been changed has opened up a (stinky) can of worms.
The narrative goes as follows: guy reluctantly gets up one morning and groggily gets himself ready for a day he doesn't want to face. The chorus comes in which establishes that there's some serious depression. Then, there's the bit about him letting her down because of his heretofore unforeseen stank which leads him to reflect about some shit that I don't care about. The chorus returns and then comes back following an instrumental break and that's about it. Oh, what can it mean...indeed.
As I say though, "Daydream Believer" is saved by just about anything other than the clumsy words and very incomplete story. The tune is very nice, all chilled out horns and Bachrach-esque melody. Peter Tork's childlike piano part makes for a sweet opener and pairs well with the boyish vocals of the boyish Davy Jones. The British transplant hadn't done much to aid the awful "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You" but his heartfelt delivery here manages to just about overcome the faulty lyrics.
The Monkees were in charge of their musical destiny but their continued reliance on outside songwriters to keep the hits coming held them back and may have even played a part in their inevitable decline. While it must have seemed at the time like they were never going to go away, it turns out they were just about done. They just had one more RPM chart topper to left in them.
Score: 6
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