Black Monk Time

Black Monk Time is the debut studio album by German-based American rock band The Monks. It was released in March 1966 through Polydor Records and was the only album released during the band's original incarnation. The album's subversive style and lyrical content was radical for its time and today is considered an important landmark in the development of punk rock.

Black Monk Time
Studio album by
Monks
ReleasedMarch 1966
RecordedNovember 1965 in Cologne, Germany
Genre
Length29:48
LabelPolydor
ProducerJimmy Bowien
Monks chronology
Black Monk Time
(1966)		 Five Upstart Americans
(1999)
Singles from Black Monk Time
  1. "Complication"
    Released: May 1965

In 2017, Black Monk Time was ranked the 127th greatest album of the 1960s by Pitchfork.[3]

Background

The album was produced by Jimmy Bowien and recorded November 1965 in Cologne, Germany. "Complication" b/w "Oh, How to Do Now" was released as a single to promote the album. Like the album, it failed to garner commercial success. The single was re-issued in 2009 by Play Loud! Productions.

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[4]
Robert Christgau[5]
The Observer[6]
Pastefavorable[7]
Pitchfork Media9.2/10[8]
Prefix9.0/10[9]
The Quietusvery favorable[10]
Spinfavorable[11]
The Daily Telegraph[12]

The album was initially released to a muted critical and commercial reception, but has since gone on to become widely critically acclaimed and is now viewed as an important protopunk album. Anthony Carew in a retrospective review for About.com called it "possibly the first punk record, and is the obvious birthplace of krautrock" and "one of the 'missing links' of alternative music history".[1] The Daily Telegraph wrote, "Listening to it now, finally, in full, remastered glory, it's hard to imagine how this primitive and often nightmarish music could have been allowed to be made at that particular time and place. [...] It may not be to every taste but, lurching according to its own sublimely clueless logic, it has a purity and heedlessness which can never be repeated." [12] Uncut wrote, "there's really nothing that can dull the impact of hearing the Monks' music for the first time."[13]

Accolades

Legacy and impact

Black Monk Time was described in the mid-1990s by Julian Cope of The Teardrop Explodes as a "lost classic".[16] Of the album's raw style, and the context of its production, Cope writes:

NO-ONE ever came up with a whole album of such dementia. The Monks' Black Monk Time is a gem born of isolation and the horrible deep-down knowledge that no-one is really listening to what you're [sic] saying. And the Monks took full artistic advantage of their lucky/unlucky position as American rockers in a country that was desperate for the real thing. They wrote songs that would have been horribly mutilated by arrangers and producers had they been back in America. But there was no need for them to clean up their act, as the Beatles and others had had to do on returning home, for there were no artistic constraints in a country that liked the sound of beat music but had no idea about its lyric content.[17]

In 2006 Play Loud! Productions released a Monks tribute album, the double-LP Silver Monk Time, featuring input from 29 international bands (including the original Monks) in conjunction with the film Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback.

English post-punk band The Fall has covered four of the album's songs: "I Hate You" and "Oh How to Do Now" on their 1990 album Extricate, "Shut Up" on their 1994 album Middle Class Revolt, and "Higgle-Dy Piggle-Dy" on the 2006 Play Loud! Productions compilation Silver Monk Time.

"I Hate You" was featured in the film The Big Lebowski.

"Monk Time" was featured in a 2000 Powerade advertisement.[18]

Beastie Boys, Jack White of The White Stripes, and Colin Greenwood of Radiohead have praised the album.[9]

"Boys Are Boys and Girls Are Choice" was featured in a commercial for the Apple iPhone in 2017.[19]

"We Do Wie Du" is featured in the 2017 film Logan Lucky. [20]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Gary Burger, Larry Clark, Dave Day, Roger Johnston and Eddie Shaw.

Side A
No.TitleLength
1."Monk Time"2:42
2."Shut Up"3:11
3."Boys Are Boys and Girls Are Choice"1:23
4."Higgle-Dy-Piggle-Dy"2:28
5."I Hate You"3:32
6."Oh, How to Do Now"3:14
Side B
No.TitleLength
1."Complication"2:21
2."We Do Wie Du"2:09
3."Drunken Maria"1:44
4."Love Came Tumblin' Down"2:28
5."Blast Off!"2:12
6."That's My Girl"2:24
1994 Repertoire Records reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
13."I Can't Get Over You"2:41
14."Cuckoo"2:42
15."Love Can Tame the Wild"2:38
16."He Went Down to the Sea"3:03
1997 Infinite Zero Archive/American Recordings reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
13."I Can't Get Over You"2:41
14."Cuckoo"2:42
15."Love Can Tame the Wild"2:38
16."He Went Down to the Sea"3:03
17."Monk Chant" (Live on Beat Club, 1966)1:59
18."I Hate You" (Demo version)3:24
19."Oh, How to Do Now" (Demo version)2:39
2004 Retribution Records reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
13."I Can't Get Over You"2:41
14."Cuckoo"2:42
15."Monk Chant" (Live on Beat Club, 1966)1:59
2009 Light in the Attic Records reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
13."I Can't Get Over You"2:41
14."Cuckoo"2:42
15."Love Can Tame the Wild"2:38
16."He Went Down to the Sea"3:03
17."Pretty Suzanne" (previously unreleased)3:55
18."Monk Chant" (Live on Beat Club, 1966)1:59

Personnel
  • Gary Burger – vocals, guitar
  • Larry Clark – vocals, philicorda organ
  • Roger Johnston – vocals, drums
  • Eddie Shaw – vocals, bass guitar
  • Dave Day – vocals, electric banjo

Release history
RegionDateTitleLabelFormatCatalog
GermanyMay 1966Black Monk TimeInternational Polydor ProductionStereo LP249 900
Germany1979Black Monk TimePolydorStereo LP2417 129
GermanyJanuary 19, 1994Black Monk TimeRepertoire RecordsCDREP 4438-WP
USAFebruary 11, 1997Black Monk Time[a]Infinite ZeroCD9 43112-2
USAOctober 12, 2004Monk TimeRetribution RecordsCD105523
GermanyMarch 13, 2009Black Monk Time[a]PolydorLP/CD1785 208 [LP], 177 1723 [CD]
USAApril 14, 2009Black Monk Time[a]Light in the Attic RecordsLP/CDLITA 042

^a This release includes extensive liner notes, including interviews and photographs

References
  1. Anthony Carew. "Definitive Albums: The Monks 'Black Monk Time' (1965)". About.com. Archived from the original on 20 March 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  2. Pitulah (February 7, 2015). "Record Bin: How the Monks predicted the rise of punk on "Black Monk Time"". NOOGAtoday. Retrieved July 4, 2019. [The Monks] released one of the first punk rock records ever recorded.
  3. "The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s". Pitchfork. August 22, 2017.
  4. Mark Deming. "Black Monk Time". Allmusic. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  5. Robert Christgau. "The Monks". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  6. Peter Kimpton (15 March 2009). "Rock review: The Monks, Black Monk Time". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  7. Stephen M. Deusner (14 April 2009). "The Monks: Black Monk Time". pastemagazine.com. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  8. Joe Tangari (20 April 2009). "The Monks: Black Monk Time". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  9. Dan Nishimoto (12 June 2009). "Review". Prefix. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  10. Alex Ogg (23 April 2009). "The Monks". The Quietus. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  11. Spin. May 2007. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. Andrew Perry (23 April 2009). "The Monks, Black Monk Time: pop CD of the week". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  13. Len Comaratta (4 September 2010). "Monks - Black Monk Time". Uncut.co.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  14. Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (7 February 2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 0-7893-1371-5.
  15. "Monks Black Monk Time". acclaimedmusic.net. Archived from the original on 24 May 2012. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  16. Cope 1995, p. 6.
  17. Cope 1995, p. 7.
  18. "Powerade "Bus Ride"". Adweek. 13 January 2008. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBfk1TIWptI
  20. https://www.amazon.com//dp/B0735LGLY3/

Bibliography

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