I had the pleasure of seeing The Monks live a short time before the banjo "player" died in a small church in a small town in Austria. They were a bunch of guys maybe in their seventies by this time, but you couldn't believe how much energy they could muster from themselves and the crowd. The Monks were all about creating a mood through rhythm and repetition and it worked very well for them. Like many American and English bands of the sixties, they found fame in Germany first; many bands never got that reaction where they came from. For many years that was also true of The Monks but then they found themselves, unexpectedly, being resurrected back in the nineties (I believe) where they became popular with a cross-section of the U.S. youth and then other parts of the world. I like The Monks, not because they were great songwriters or lyricists (there is seldom a melody or easily-identifiable structure), but because of the energy they exerted. It is very difficult to listen to them without feeling some force working on you to do something,maybe fight, maybe get drunk or maybe run a marathon. Enjoy
