This is a beautiful bossa-tinged theme with a great blend of strings and brass. The flute/trombone melody is accompanied by an incredibly rich and airy string sound, which swells as the melody builds. The strings alone compel me to listen to this track repeatedly – their remarkably thick, drenched sound recalls some of my favorite Ennio Morricone pieces (particularly those on the fantastic ‘Mondo Morricone’ compilation). Musically, the entire ‘Hammerhead’ score seems to have been influenced by John Barry's Bond scores, and by the less goofy parts of Burt Bacharach's ‘Casino Royale’ score. As well as being a haunting movie theme, this track has elements of that classic loungey film score sound from the mid-sixties.
27 May 05 ·nighteye: This song is excellent! Haven't seen the movie starring Peter Vaughan yet, but the bossa sound reminds me of the early John Barry pieces. I can't stop listening to it! Thank you Jonny!
Underrated Monkees pop song with a country feel to it about getting tired of a lover's lies: "times have made me shy of all the things you're saying, times have made me shy of girls and all the games they are playing".
from Headquarters (Colgems), available on CD (Rhino)
11 Oct 05 ·adam12: Love this tune as well. As you may know this is the first song first side of Headquarters which was the first Monkees album that featured them playing arranging and producing the music. Mike Nesmith penned tune with a great banjo work from Peter Tork. This cut probably opened the ears of a few cynics when it came out. Definitely not light weight pop, more of a Byrds, country rock feel.
Very underated song and album.
