Black Monk Time

Untitled

Black Monk Time was the first album by the rock group The Monks, and the only album they released during their original incarnation.

The album was produced by Jimmy Bowien, and recorded March 1966 in Cologne, Germany. It was released May 1966 by Polydor in Germany. It was described in the mid-1990s by Julian Cope as a "lost classic" , the album has since been reissued more than once, and has gained a broader, albeit still underground, appreciation and fame. 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 your [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 .

Track listing

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
7. "Complication" – 2:21
8. "We Do Wie Du" – 2:09
9. "Drunken Maria" – 1:44
10. "Love Came Tumblin' Down" – 2:28
11. "Blast Off!" – 2:12
12. "That's My Girl" – 2:24

• All tracks written by Burger/Clark/Day/Johnston/Shaw.

CD bonus tracks

Key

• Rep. = 1994 Repertoire Records reissue
• IZ = 1996 Infinite Zero Archive/American Recordings reissue
• Retr. = 2004 Retribution Records reissue
• LitA = 2009 Light in the Attic Records reissue

Title	Duration	Track Number
		Rep.	IZ	Retr.	LitA
"I Can't Get Over You" (1966 single A-side)	2:42	13	13	13	13
"Cuckoo" (1966 single B-side)	2:41	14	14	14	14
"Love Can Tame the Wild" (1967 single A-side)	2:38	15	15		15
"He Went Down to the Sea" (1967 single B-side)	3:03	16	16		16
"Monk Chant" (live on Beat Club, 1966)	1:59		17		18
"I Hate You" (demo version)	3:24		18
"Oh, How to Do Now" (demo version)	2:39		19
"Pretty Suzanne" (previously unreleased)	3:55				17

• All tracks written by Burger/Clark/Day/Johnston/Shaw.

Complication single

"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 reissued in 2009 by Play Loud! Productions.

Covers

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

In 2006 Play Loud! Productions released in conjunction with the film Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback the soundtrack/tribute double CD Silver Monk Time. 29 international bands (the original monks included) took part in this release.

Reissues

• Black Monk Time (1979, Polydor) [LP]
• Black Monk Time (1994, Repertoire Records) [CD]
• Black Monk Time (1997, Infinite Zero) [CD]^[a]
• Monk Time (2004, Retribution Records) [CD]
• Black Monk Time (2009, Universal Music Germany) [LP, CD]^[a]
• Black Monk Time (2009, Light in the Attic Records) [LP, CD]^[a]

^a These reissues feature extensive liner note booklets, including Interviews, essays, lyrics, documentary information and period photographs

Personnel

• vocals/Guitar: Gary Burger
• Organ: Larry Clark
• drums: Roger Johnston
• Bass guitar: Eddie Shaw
• Banjo: Dave Day

Links

• Black Monk Time article on Cult Cargo