Artist The Monks

Release Black Monk Time

Year 1966

Label Polydor # 2417129

Format LP · Album

Country Germany: West [FRG]

Language English

Songs here 2 in the archive

1966 · Album · Polydor # 2417129 · Germany: West [FRG]

Another garage rock band, The Monks, formed in 1964, were discharged American GIs stationed in Germany. They previously went under the name The 5 Torquays. Featuring Gary Burger (guitar, vocals), Larry Clark (organ), Dave Day (banjo), Roger Johnston (drums), and Eddie Shaw (bass), they swiftly disbanded in 1967 after only one album, and just before a scheduled tour of Vietnam. Dressed in black with tonsures (i.e. as monks / clerics), they played the Beat bars of Germany, such as Hamburg's Top Ten Club. The music evolved, with feedback, strange vocals, odd song structures, and nursery rhyme style lyrics. Their music also featured fuzz bass, free form organ playing, and an electric banjo. A documentary was made of the band in 2006: Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback.¹²³

Firstly, the song "Complication" contained anti-war lyrics, presented almost as a military march, as the band sung in unison, damning the government and military for sending people to war: "people cry, people die for you, people kill...people go to their deaths" . Then their signature song "Monk Time" (Polydor # 2417129) opposed the escalating Vietnam War: "why do you kill all those kids over there in Vietnam?" The song attacked all sides fighting, drawing attention to the "mad Viet Cong" and declaring their hate of all armies: "who cares what army" . Burger recalled that this irritated German and American servicemen: "I had a German jump on stage and begin strangling me. I busted him in the chops with my guitar neck".⁴

The songs