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Okay, stuff to look out for - and they actually (via a Michael Nesmith coup) took artistic control after the first two albums,
These albums are worth checking out, 'Headquarters' (the first to be be played by the band itself), 'Pisces Capricorn Aquarius & Jones', 'The Birds The Bees & The Monkees' and of course 'Head Soundtrack'. They're not consistent and there's usually a small number of Davy Jones clunkers on each album (kinda the 'Ringo' tracks of the Monkees) but there are also some bubblegum psych and garage delights courtesy of Nesmith & Tork.
Tunes to watch out for (just off the top of me head);
You Just May Be The One
Salesman
The Door Into Summer
Love Is Only Sleeping
Star Collector
Daily Nightly
Tapioca Tundra
Auntie's Municipal Court
Do I Have To Do This All Over Again
Can You Dig It?

Thanks. That's very precise. I'm trying to find the best all round collection available that may contain a lot of the more interesting psych/self played songs, as well as some of the 'hits', but no luck so far. I think that would probably do, and I could remove some dross and download some individual extras instead, like you have mentioned, to complete it.

In defence of Davy, he was actually the second most prolific songwriter in The Monkees after Mike Nesmith, and came up with a handful of genuine classics. A case in point is 'You And I' on the album Instant Replay, a great slice of acid rock featuring Neil Young on lead guitar. (Not to be confused with the song of the same title he co-wrote with Micky for the Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart LP and rerecorded for the 90s reunion album Justus).

Micky wasn't really a songwriter, meaning the ones he penned were sometimes stunningly original (e.g. 'Randy Scouse Git').

Thanks to Rhino records The Monkees back catalogue is now more than twice the size as it was when they split, and a lot of the best stuff has only recently seen the light of day. Don't be blinded by the whole manufactured image issue: they endorsed Hendrix and Tim Buckley, were friends with Zappa (he is in the movie and one of the TV episodes) and made pioneering use of the Moog synthesizer. The rate of brilliance to dross is about 3:1, I'd say.