Listen To The Band
I was six years old when I began taking drum lessons. My father took me every week to Jerry’s Music on Castor Ave. Bud Crumly was my teacher. He was this little old man who chain smoked all through the lesson. He taught me the basics. He even had me play along with a “Rock N’ Roll” song. His version of Rock N’ Roll was “Hello” by Lionel Richie. The same song over and over again for months. This was the cause of my hatred of all things Lionel Richie. I can’t even listen to him anymore. I filled my quota in that short amount of time.
During the time that I took those lessons, something happened that would change my life. Hanging on the wall in Jerry’s music was this red Gretsch guitar and on the pickguard was the logo for The Monkees. It was a Mike Nesmith replica. I always looked at it in awe thinking it was actually HIS guitar. Let explain why it had such an impact on me.
I was 7 years old, had been playing drums now for a year. MTV was still the hottest place to check out the latest rock bands. It was 1986 and everybody had music videos. There was Bon Jovi, David Lee Roth went solo, Robert Palmer, Madonna and who can forget that revolutionary moment when Run D. M. C. collaborated with Aerosmith to cover “Walk This Way”?
On February 23, 1986, MTV aired a weekend marathon of the 1960’s TV show The Monkees. The reaction was so huge that it caused a major comeback for the once fictious band. That is where my fascination began.
I know a lot of people today are not aware of this show and what it created or how it changed the lives of people all over the world. I’ll give a brief history so you know what I am talking about.
In 1964, Beatlemania rocked the world. Believe me, I have a lot to say about The Beatles, but that is for another article. However, they do play a major part in The Monkees history. The Beatles first movie, “A Hard Day’s Night” was released in 1964. It was a musical comedy about a day in the life of The Fab Four (no pun intended). It showed them having to travel from train to car to television studio to perform on an Ed Sullivan like show. Not only was it filled with songs from their latest album, but it showed how funny and quick witted these boys were.
NBC executives used that movie as inspiration to create an American version of The Beatles and turn it into a weekly tv show that would help promote the sale of pop music. They started with two actors who had been acting since they were kids (Davey Jones and Micky Dolenz) and they decided to add two real musicians so that it really looked like they were playing their instruments (Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith). The idea was to have them act out the show and sing the vocals. The producers would take care of the writing, recording and producing of the music.
When the show started, the songwriting team behind the fictional band were Tommy Boyce and Bobby Heart. They also employed up and coming songwriters who later in life made it on their own. A young Niel Diamond wrote “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” as well as their biggest hit “I’m A Believer”. “Pleasant Vally Sunday” was written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King.
This formula worked and The Monkees became very popular not only on the small screen but with their records as well. When that happened, the band themselves were not ready for the backlash of fans claiming they don’t play their own instrument. In-fighting began between the real musicians of the band, Nesmith and Tork, fighting the producers to allow them to not only play on the records but to begin writing their own songs.
Trying to compromise the producers slowly allowed them to write and record their own music as long as it fit the public image of the show. As the battle went on, the band became less and less interested in making the show and more interested in writing, recording and touring. The TV show only ran two seasons from 1966-68 and the band broke up in 1970. Of course, there is A LOT more to the story, but let’s get back to the story at hand, shall we?
At 7 years old, MTV ran their Monkees marathon and I was hooked. Seeing I was so interested in them, my Uncle Roy had some VHS tapes with every episode taped from TV. He lent them to me and I could not stop watching. They were zany, they were funny, they were campy, and the songs were fantastic. In the same year, The Monkees released a Best Of album called “Then And Now”. It featured their greatest hits with a few new songs as they were re-uniting for a new tour. I must have studied that album back to front, side A, side B. It was my favorite album. I even copied it to a cassette so I could listen to it on vacation that year and wore out the tape.
Years later, they released a boxed set that I bought and I studied that as well. When my father began to play guitar again and jam with Uncle Roy, I would sometimes go along and learn new songs to play on drums. The three of us played “She Hangs Out” all the time.
I never really got to see The Monkees together. I always wished I had. One night I heard Peter Tork was playing a small club in Philadelphia and there was no way I was going to miss this. He played with a man name James Lee Stanley. It was an excellent show. Although people kept calling out for him to play “Your Auntie Grizelda” (one of the Monkees songs he sang), he would not play that one but did play “Pleasant Valley Sunday”.
After the show I was so nervous walking up to him. He was someone I idolized. Trying to make small talk I complimented him on the music they had played that night and asked him if it was available anywhere. He quickly and rudely shot back a no. A little put off, I thought maybe I just took it the wrong way and decided to try again. I asked him if The Monkees would be getting back together again. Again, he answered quickly and rudely “no never again”. On a mission to get some autographs, I tried one more time by asking how many things we could get signed. Rudely, yet again, he shot back “three things per person THAT’S IT!”. After getting my stuff signed, I sat back and thought about it. I felt like saying “what gives you the right to be rude to me? You were a MONKEE!”. Around the time of this show, I had been working with other musicians from all over who were not nearly as known as he was and were 100 times nicer to their fans. It turned me off to their music for a while. Later in life, I wrote it off as him just having a bad night.
In February 2020, my Uncle Roy was playing in the Mark Evans Band and were set to open for Mickey Dolenz at The Sellersville Theater. Again, there was no way I was going to miss this. Mickey was always my favorite because he was the goofiest, he was the drummer AND he was the lead singer. It is REALLY rare that you have the drummer as the lead singer. He put on one hell of a show. He told stories of the glory days and the stores behind some of the songs. Mickey recounted the first time he met Paul McCartney, and John Lennon calling him “Monkee Man”. Then after the show he sat at a table and signed away. Because of the sheer volume of fans, he didn’t have time to pose for photos but he signed everything and talked to everyone.
My father and I were first in line to get our stuff signed. After we did, I stood there in complete and utter AWE watching this man be so friendly to everyone. All I could think was “There he is right there. The man I watched growing up be so funny and studied his music my whole life. There he is 10 feet from me. I got to meet him, he talked to me.” I still get chills thinking about that night. It was the greatest night of my life. That night was perfectly timed as well because months later the world would shut down. That perfect night is the night I will always remember as the LAST night that the world was normal. Before the world changed forever.
I still maintain that The Monkees were THEE most underrated band of the 1960’s, maybe even ever. You may have heard their songs on the radio. Now go and really have a good LISTEN. Listen to the vocals, listen to the words, listen to instruments and how they are used. Simply put: Listen To The Band!
Until next time,
Thanks for reading!
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