Porpoise Song

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was written by carole king and gerry goffin and released by the monkees in 1968. i first heard it during the underwater sequence from the monkees' film 'head'. it has made me sob near-uncontrollably twice in the past twenty-four hours. talk about it please.

― ethan, Sunday, 30 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

it is the 'lesbian seagull' of its day — or possibly the 'tarkus'

― aquaduck s, Sunday, 30 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's pretty damn good, especially that concluding part which is only available on the soundtrack and not the Rhino greatest hits, as I discovered. The Church did a flat out amazing version of it on their covers album A Box of Birds, dreamy, beautiful, rich.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 30 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It might be their best song (and it's on what might be their best album). Very beautiful cosmic melody matched with cool psychedelic lyrics ("Riding the backs of giraffes for laughs is alright for a while/ The ego sings of castles and kings and things that go with a life of style", I particularly like). Every good home needs a copy.

Another nice cover version is by Bongwater. I forget which album, but it's probably on Double Bummer.

― Oliver Kneale, Sunday, 30 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You're quite right, I had forgotten about that one...*checks*...yup, on the CD version.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 30 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Didn't the Wondermints cover this on their "Wonderful world.." CD? I seem to recall so. I was more obsessed with their take on the BeachBoys "guess I'm dumb"

― helenfordsdale, Sunday, 30 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The AMG will help with this -- Trouble, who I didn't realize kept going, covered it in 1996, while I completely forgot about the KLF version! And yup, says that the Wondermints did it as well.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 30 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Now *this* is a perfect song. Swoon. Mickey Dolenz is such a great singer, so underrated. I agree with everything Oliver said above.

I didn't realize it was so heavily covered! I think Soul Asylum used to cover this live, too, if anyone cares. I think they incorporated the "goodbye goodbye goodbye" bit into some song of theirs.

― Arthur, Sunday, 30 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have always loved this song -- I think the Monkees did psychedelic much better than most of the "respectable" bands of the day, like the Stones.

And might I also say that Head is a pretty cool movie?

― Nicole, Sunday, 30 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i'm feeling a lot better now and sadly the song seems to have lost the emotional impact it had.

― ethan, Sunday, 30 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yes, i love this song too, and i do like the film Head, although i wonder if this is one of those films that i like because i saw it when i was 16ish, perhaps i'd be less forgiving now? (difficult to know). i haven't listened to this song in a while (only have it on my video copy of the film), but will listen to this asap because this is an interesting question

― gareth, Monday, 31 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

FYI, "Porpoise Song" also appears on the "Vanilla Sky" soundtrack.

― Dan Gibson, Monday, 31 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

son of a bitch!

― ethan, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two months pass...

The porpoise song is a complete copy of the beatles. The monkeys should have been fined heavily and the record banned(porpoise even rhymes with walrus!). Grow up and realize the monkees were just a made up band by a TV show.

― T Logan, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Grow up and realize the monkees were just a made up band by a TV show.

b-b-but, thats my favourite kind! you might be right about the growing up thing though, i'll get back to you when i'm old

― gareth, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

porpoise doesnt rhyme with fucken anything! ya nut!

― , Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Surely "porpoise" rhymes with "tortoise", if said in a similar way?

Anyway, great song, played it this weekend and thrilled to it. See my notes on forthcoming C90 article in which the song appears...

― Rob M, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I like the Monkees more thanthe Beatles. "The Porpoise Song" is beautiful. The "Head" LP is great. I will go & listen to it now

― Norman Phay, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one year passes...

Leave it to the Monkees to break me out of my Siouxsie loop. This song is astonishing and gorgeous.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 22 May 2003 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Riding the backs of giraffes for laughs is alright for a while

Us Monkee Nuts know that the lyric refers to Micky Dolenz's career as a child actor in the series "Circus Boy". And yes, The Monkees were better than the Beatles.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:43 (twenty-two years ago)

four years pass...

monster song, probably their best and one of the undeniable greats from the 60s.
also, always fun to see ethan's musical taste circa 2001.

― gershy, Friday, 10 August 2007 07:48 (eighteen years ago)

goodbye, goodbye!!!

― Mark G, Friday, 10 August 2007 08:04 (eighteen years ago)

theres a really hissy demo of this on p2p sites by carole king - its just as amazing!

― zappi, Friday, 10 August 2007 16:01 (eighteen years ago)

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