Artist: The Monkees Album: --Released as a single Song: Pleasant Valley Sunday Year: 1967 Top Chart Position: #3

Your local rock group down the street Is trying hard to learn this song To serenade the weekend squire Just came out to mow his lawn Another pleasant valley sunday Charcoal burnin everywhere Rows of houses that are all the same And no one seems to care See Mrs. Gray she's proud today Because her roses are in bloom And Mr. Green he's so serene He's got a TV in every room Another pleasant valley sunday Here in status symbol land Mothers complain About how hard life is And the kids just don't understand Creature comfort goals They only numb my soul And make it hard for me to see My thoughts all seem to stray To places far away I need a change of scenery (Ta ta ta ta....) Another pleasant valley sunday Charcoal burning everywhere Another pleasant valley sunday Here in status symbol land Another pleasant valley sunday (repeat

Pleasant Valley Sunday is funny to begin with. The Monkees didn’t start off playing their own instruments nor writing their own music. However, by the time they wrote this song, they were doing both, and in the process immortalizing themselves. As the song says, the "local rock group down the street is trying hard to learn this song." In this song, they introduce us to the typical bullshit world, manufactured to the way everyone wants it… or the majority anyway. So, in actuality, it’s a drab world made by a committee, Levittown style. What’s happened to the people? They have their typical junk, are happy to have their typical junk, and they feel superior because they have brand X, while the neighbors have brand Y. Rather than bettering themselves, life has become about bettering their possessions, to "keep ahead of the Jones’s." "And Mr. Green he's so serene" because its all about what you have, according to this song.