Circle Sky


"Circle Sky" is a song written by Michael Nesmith of The Monkees, which appeared on their sixth album, the Head soundtrack, and also in the film Head as a live concert performance.

Background and inspiration

The song is written and performed in style reminiscent to the work of musician Bo Diddley, staying mostly on a single chord, while strumming barre chords down the guitar neck for the intro, outro, and breaks, and from B minor to D minor for the bridge.
The lyrics are impressions of sights and sounds on a Monkees tour, while "Hamilton's smiling down" refers to a Hamilton music stand, used for rehearsals and recording.

Release

While the movie included the song performed live by the Monkees in Salt Lake City, Utah on May 17, 1968, during a free show at the Valley Auditorium, the original soundtrack album instead substituted a studio recording, made by Nesmith and session musicians.
The film version intercut Vietnam War footage with concert footage, and featured several mirrored shots of the band onstage.
A lo-fi transcription of the concert version was included on an Australian Monkees compilation in the early 1980s, Monkeemania , while an alternate studio take appeared on a Rhino Records album, Monkee Flips, in 1984.
A stereo recording of the concert version finally appeared on Missing Links Volume Two, in 1990. This version on the Apple iTunes Store is incorrect, but Amazon's MP3 is correct.
A reworked version of the song opened the Monkees's 1996 reunion album, Justus, featuring a rare Davy Jones guitar performance.
This version is harder rocking than the original but is otherwise identical musically. The lyrics, however, have been changed in several spots.

Personnel

Studio version:
Live version :
Justus version: