“Just a Game (demo takes 1 to 3)”

[instrumental excerpt from “Just a Game”]

[hits drum]
?: Sorry. [laughs]
Micky: Jesus Christ. What was that? Oh, did that sound shitty! You asshole. God damn it. One…
?: Hey.
Micky: …two.
?: There’s no reason why you shouldn’t sing with.
Micky: Huh? Okay, I’ll sing it. One.
?: Well, what are you—
?: Mick, could you play a little louder, Mick, or turn your amp up?
?: [???]
?: Turn your amp up.
Micky: No, hey, come on, guys, that’s so loud. That should be the very end. It has to go through me and the bass, and then it should go through Davy doing something like tsh-tsh-tsh-tsh-tsh…
?: Play some more. Play some more.
Peter: Hey Micky? Play some more.
?: Yeah, right, okay, okay.
Peter: Play some more, man.
?: Turn yourself up.
Micky: Can you make me a…
?: Turn yourself up.
Micky: …mellower for me? It’s too harsh. It’s as high as it goes on this thing.
Peter: Stop.
?: Let’s go.
Micky: One, two, three.
Peter: Seven.
[plays]
Micky: Should I sing it?
?: Yeah.
Micky: Alright, alright, alright. Okay, one.
?: What’s it, what are you calling this anyway, Mick?
Micky: Uh, I don’t know yet. No name. No name.
?: Guys, what if you put a vocal mic on Micky and we took a vocal?
Micky: “There’s A Way”. ’Cause there’s not enough words.
?: “There’s A Way”?
Micky: Yeah.
Peter?: Yeah, why not.
?: “There’s A Way”, take uh, three.
Davy?: Three.
?: [???]
Micky: There’s a way—oh yeah, one, two, three, four.

There’s a way
There’s a way for you and I if you’ll just stay
If you’ll just stay to keep me hidden from the day
And all its light
That’s covered up by night
When you’re away
When you’re away

When you’re away, the image of—

?: Start your eighth notes there, Peter. It should be—
Micky: Yeah. This is a, remember it’s a modern rock and roll song.
?: Yeah.
Micky: We, I can’t build it like we could if we were on a stage show or something.
?: Start your eighth notes there [???]
Micky: We gotta do it in two and a half, three minutes.
Peter: Mm, right.
Micky: But I’m hip, I’m [???] drag.
?: You guys do this on stage?
Micky: Could we?
?: Do you?
Micky: No, I just wrote it.
?: Oh!

There’s a way
There’s a way for you and I if you’ll just stay
If you’ll just stay to keep me hidden from the day
And all its light
That’s covered up by night
When you’re away

When you’re away, the image of your face is clear
It is clear across the room, and I am here
Against the wall
Afraid that it is all
Just a game

While I’m here
While I’m here, and you are in my state of mind
My state of mind is missin’, missin’ you this time
Ne-ne, na na-na da-da-da, na da-da-da
Into the bridge

?: Oh, I didn’t realize that was the end.
Micky: Yeah.
?: See, I didn’t know where we were at.
Micky: Ah, well, there’s no way to tell ya, you know…


  1. The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the ’60s TV Pop Sensation (2005), Andrew Sandoval, p. 293.