Peter Tork, Monkees bass player, has died. He turned 77 last week.
Tork (1942-2019) was the oldest of the Monkees.
Davy Jones, the youngest, (1945-2012) was the first to pass.
Mike Nesmith (1942-) recently had heart surgery, but is recovering well.
Mickey “Circus Boy” Dolenz (1945-) is apparently fit as a fiddle.
The Monkees became popular when I was in college, but their music was clearly aimed at younger teens who weren’t interested in the bad-boy Stones or the morphing, experimenting Beatles. The Monkees were such a cutesy, pre-fab teeny-bopper group that they didn’t even play their own instruments on their first album. In a world that was darkening ominously as a counter-cultural storm brewed, the Monkees seemed to represent light and sunshine, a frivolous and obviously commercialized confection.
Despite all of that, and despite the occasional contempt of my snobbier friends, I thought the Monkees’ tunes were catchy, and since they were ubiquitous, I often caught myself singing along with the radio. OK, I didn’t buy any of their albums or anything like that, but I did watch their silly TV show quite often – and occasionally laughed.
And I ain’t embarrassed to admit it.
There were a lot of American bands that had some degree of prefabness in the Mid 60s. Only one Byrd played on Tambourine Man (McGuinn). And the Beach Boys only did vocals on most of their albums.
The Brits had little of that (except the Herman’s). Everybody played their instruments (and it’s hilarious how badly Keith Richards played in 1962 – listen to Come On or Money – but he got good real fast). There were some future stars who didn’t actually play in bands for a while because there was so much money playing behind singers like Donovan and Marianne Faithfull. When Clapton left the Yardbirds, Jimmy Page wouldn’t sign on – too big a paycut from what he was getting from sessions. Thankfully, he suggested they hire a mate of his and they did. Some guy named Jeff Beck.
That’s because they had some serious songwriting behind them. Most notably Neil Diamond and Carole King.
The one you’ve linked was by John Stewart of the Kingston Trio.