[Edited 7/23/13 10:38am]

Peter interview:

July 17 clip: What Am I Doing Hangin' Round

Here's one of Davy's last interviews, about a month before he passed. Kinda interesting, especially the end when he mentions wishing that he could have spoken to Charlie Sheen, Jimi Hendrix, and other troubled celebs.

Forty-six years after its release, The Monkees' Headquarters is still the real deal

One-Hundred Percent Pure Monkees

by Randy Fox, July 18, 2013

When one attempts to write about The Monkees, the fifth member of the group always demands attention. Namely, the 800-pound gorilla that is The Monkees' tale — the Pre-Fab Four, a "fake" rock band assembled by Hollywood producers solely to star in a TV show, and the idea that none of their music is worthy of serious attention.

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It's a persistent and pernicious myth, and — as with most urban legends — one that's easily dispelled by the facts. In the early months of 1967, the myth-storm was raging at full force, and The Monkees definitely had something to prove. In February of that year, the quartet gained their musical freedom with the ouster of producer Don Kirshner. Kirshner had overseen the music of the group's first two albums and the first season of their hit TV show. He viewed The Monkees as vocalists and nothing more. For the most part, he barred them from playing their own instruments on recording sessions, participating in song selection or performing any of the other functions that they believed they were hired to do as a band.

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Michael Nesmith led the revolt. As an established singer and songwriter in the Southern California scene and an aspiring record producer, he was particularly chafed by Kirshner's condescension. The battle raged for months, and eventually led to a contentious meeting that ended with Nesmith punching his fist through a wall. When the dust settled, Kirshner was gone, and The Monkees were calling the shots.

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There was a problem. All four of The Monkees were talented guys — all with varying degrees of musical experience and each with their own musical interests — but the onscreen acting chemistry of the quartet didn't automatically translate to the recording studio. As Mike Nesmith told Monkees biographer Andrew Sandoval, "[It was like] a really good tennis player, and a really good football player, and a really good basketball player, and a really good golfer got together and played baseball. ... We could give it a try. Maybe make a little garage-band music."

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And that's exactly what they did. During the early months of 1967, The Monkees secreted themselves away in RCA's Hollywood studio to produce Headquarters. Released in May 1967, the album still stands as one of the most engaging, creative and endearing rock albums of the 1960s.

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After some silly introductory studio chatter (the guys were also comedians, remember), the album kicks off with the countrified garage-rock psychedelia of Nesmith's "You Told Me" and then feeds right into the folk pop of "I'll Spend My Life With You." The mix of musical styles continues. A flat-out frantic garage rocker, "No Time," nuzzles up next to the pure pop confection of "Forget That Girl" and a magisterial monument of country rock, "You Just May Be the One."

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Side 2 opens and closes with two of The Monkees' finest moments. Peter Tork's wonderful "For Pete's Sake" captures the heady optimism of the counterculture in a way that remains infectious four-and-a-half cynical decades later. The album closes with "Randy Scouse Git," a smashing example of Micky Dolenz's vocal prowess, and a demonstration of how weird The Monkees could be while never leaving their audience behind. Throughout the album, the varied styles of The Monkees' musical interests combine to produce one of the greatest sum-to-parts return ratios ever.

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Headquarters hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard album chart the week of June 24, 1967, and dropped a notch the next week due to the release of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's. For the next 11 weeks, the albums occupied the top two spots, a yin and yang at the soul of pop music during the Summer of Love. Sgt. Pepper's became the LP that launched a thousand pretentious concept albums, but Headquarters demonstrated that rock music could be just as adventurous, innovative and relevant without aspiring to high art.

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Oddly enough, one of the greatest obstacles The Monkees faced in making a coherent work is also one of the primary reasons for Headquarters' artistic success. If Dolenz, Jones, Nesmith and Tork hadn't been brought together by Hollywood producers, they would never have formed a band on their own. But given their position and the unifying desire to defy their critics, everything came together in 30 minutes of sublime dissonant cohesion. It's hard to cite another rock album that fires in as many directions as Headquarters but still sounds like the work of one band — at least until the Clash released London Calling in 1979.

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Of course, such a volatile mixture couldn't remain stable for long. The group maintained the musical unity for their next LP, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. But with the release of The Birds, the Bees & The Monkees in April 1968, the group dissolved into individual musical fiefdoms. Each member produced his respective tracks with little input from the others — a fate that also overtook The Beatles that same year.

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Forty-six years after its release, Headquarters is still proof that there was nothing pre-fab about the four. When the three surviving members play the Ryman Wednesday night, they can not only stand erect as a "real" rock 'n' roll band, but also as one of the best — an accomplishment that any primate can be proud of.

Nashville Scene

How the Nez Was Won

Michael Nesmith's return to the Monkees

By Scott Schinder, Fri., July 26, 2013

A funny thing happened to the Monkees on their way to being dismissed as prefab bubblegum lightweights: People noticed how good they were.

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In the four and a half decades since the foursome's prime time sitcom went off the air, their reputation as musicmakers has transcended the group's origins as actor-musicians recruited to portray an ersatz Beatles on a TV show. Against all odds, the Monkees emerged as a real band, one whose expansive body of work has aged with considerably more grace than those of many of the period's more serious acts.

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That's abundantly clear on the Monkees' current tour, which continues Michael Nesmith's return to the band. While bandmates Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork periodically reunited to deliver beloved hits, the group's recent performances – which marks a return to touring after Jones' death last February – have struck a deeper, more personal tone, presenting the band's body of work with a level of poignancy and respect that befits the music's quality and influence.

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The shows emphasize material from 1967's Headquarters and 1968's Head, the best of the albums that the Monkees made after wresting control away from the show biz pros who'd created the act.

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Nesmith's longstanding absence from the fold, save for a brief run of UK Monkees shows in 1997, combined with his prolific solo output and career as a home-video pioneer, has led many observers to assume he had little interest in his Monkees past. In truth, the Houston-born entrepreneur has long been an ardent advocate on behalf of the group's catalog, producing the fine 1996 reunion album Justus as well as writing and directing a Monkees TV special the same year.

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At 70, Nesmith, who followed the Mon­kees' dozen-show 2012 run with solo tours in the U.S. and UK, seems to be enjoying his return to the live arena. The Monkees' current five-week tour brings Nesmith, Dol­enz, Tork, and their heart-tugging multimedia presentation to the Long Center on July 31.

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Austin Chronicle [via email]: You hadn't toured for two decades prior to 2012, yet you really seem to be enjoying the current shows and your interaction with the audiences. Has your attitude towards touring changed?

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Michael Nesmith: My attitude may have changed a bit, probably in line with the general notion in these days of the Internet and the new distribution of music. But I started as a writer/performer, and have always kept "performer" as part of that kit. Maybe the concert activity now is more critical and more enjoyable for everyone, since it's a bastion of authenticity. There's nothing else like live performance in all the arts. It's a cultural hearth fire that warms everyone around it, so it's joyous and fun for me. That makes it particularly compelling right now.

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AC: Focusing on the depth of the Monkees' catalog rather than just delivering familiar hits has given the shows a deeper emotional resonance. What influenced you to take the shows in that direction, and has there been an element of validation in seeing the Head and Headquarters material received so warmly?

MN: We did think about this carefully. Micky and I had long and detailed talks about the "emotional resonance" of the shows, why we were doing it, and how it should be presented. It was great fun to dig into the Monkees zeitgeist and understand what it meant. We wanted to rise to the fans' expectations, and to do that, we had to think about who they were and what the Monkees mean to them – to travel deep in the mines of the music and find those songs and moments that were savored under the covers or alone.

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Along this path, we discovered that the show was really only about them, the audience. The salient point was that the Mon­kees were not about me or Peter or Micky as personalities, but about a larger sense of the times and an appreciation of the attitude and music of the early shows. How it created the present and what it means now to the life and times we're living in.

The shows have been remarkably stimulating and happy-fying. And yes, the validation for it has been almost overwhelming. We all come offstage after a show riding on the high that the audience is on. For me, the greatest show of the evening is the show I see from the stage: watching the audience connect, which I think is the way a great live show should be. So it's most satisfying for all concerned.

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AC: You're still known to some degree for being the member who went public about his dissatisfaction with the Monkees' behind-the-scenes situation in the Sixties. Yet you've always shown great affection for the band and its body of work, and maintained a protective attitude towards the group's legacy.

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MN: I was sensitive in the TV show days to people who wanted to cynically exploit the show and the music, so I pushed back against that. That push-back was in support of the idea not to denigrate or to destroy it. My appreciation for the show was rooted in my love of the Beatles, and my love for the Sixties pop music and the whole artistic tone of the times. The Monkees were central to that. It was, and is, the television component of a great wave of good and happy and insightful work around the world.

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I did not like those whose effort was to co-opt or appropriate that wave for personal gain. The TV show, the music, the concerts were bigger than that, and there was plenty to go around. Since no one knew exactly how this was happening, we were all along for the ride. When someone insisted on driving the bus, I knew they were not to be trusted. There was no bus, no steering wheel.

The Monkees were a product of the times and the people that loved them. The Monkees persist now in the same way all art from that time persists: because it was part of it and a creation of that spirit, not of any one person or one political force.

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AC: You've re-embraced live performing at a time when many of your contemporaries are slowing down or retiring. Do you feel like you're entering a musically active period?

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MN: I have continued with music and the arts for all my career. My first craft is writing, and wherever I can find the opportunity for that is the most rewarding to me. I actively and daily pursue every idea that leads to higher and better art and living.

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As for business endeavors or projects, I have nothing I want to talk about now. But there are many things growing in my garden, and some of the plants are as yet mysterious and unknown to me, which is to say I have no idea what fruit they might yield, so I better keep my mouth shut. But it's a pretty garden with beautiful blossoms. It smells great.

The Monkees' Peter Tork: 'I Liked My Acid' But 'I'm a Clean Liver Now'

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July 31, 2013 – 11:48 AM, By Lindsay Lowe Parade

It’s been nearly half a century since the Monkees exploded onto the ‘60s pop scene, and this summer, founding member Peter Tork is still going strong.

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In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Tork opened up about the Monkees’ summer tour and reflected on how his life—and his fans—have changed since the days of Head.

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For one thing, he says, the group has more male fans than ever before. “Guys are coming out of the Monkee fan closet!” he said. “The idea was to make it a heartthrob group—that means women. At our first concerts, you wouldn’t see one man in a hundred.”

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Tork is touring the country with the other two surviving original Monkees members, Mike Nesmith and Micky Dolenz. This summer tour marks the second time Nesmith has performed with the group since the sudden death of front man Davy Jones last year.

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Though the shows “don’t sell out every night, we’re doing very well nevertheless,” Tork said. “We were at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville the other day and I thought we scorched.”

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Tork added that these days, he and his band mates are enjoying a much “calmer” lifestyle than they did during the group’s heyday in the ‘60s.

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“I liked my acid, I enjoyed it,” he said of his drug-using days, but “I have not taken a mind-altering substance for 30 odd years. I was a partier back then and I’m a clean liver now. It suits me just as much now as it did back then.”

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“All of us are more sedate,” he added. “We are more appreciative of the joys of company and chatting and laughter, and not drinking and screaming and yelling.”

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He also discussed the return of Mike Nesmith, sometimes called the ‘missing Monkee,’ who resigned from the band in 1970.

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“He’s always been the question mark,” Tork said. “Mike has, and had, other ambitions. He’s giving what he’s got to this…I see a lot of commitment from him on this [tour]. We’re getting along brilliantly.”

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The Monkees’ summer tour continues through August 18^th, finishing with a concert in Portland, Ore.

Mary Mary - August 2, 2013

Monkees’ Appeal Spans Generations

By DANIEL DULLUM Staff Writer

Thursday, August 15, 2013

MESA – Monkees concerts have been intergenerational affairs for some time now. Friday’s performance at the Mesa Arts Center was no exception.

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Sitting in the top row of the balcony, for example, was a mom and dad, and their two daughters, ages 17 and 21. All clearly enjoying a healthy two-hour dose of Monkeemania.

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“This was awesome,” the 17-year-old said of the show. Asked what it was about the Monkees that appealed to her, she responded, “Their music is so different from what we have to listen to. It’s more fun! We love it.”

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The girls explained that, like the older ticket buyers in attendance, they, too, discovered The Monkees through the TV show. In particular, through a box set of DVDs owned by their parents.

“And, we listen to the original records,” the smiling 17-year-old said proudly. “And we play them on a real turntable!”

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Whether they were 17 or 57, 7 or 67, the near-capacity crowd embraced what was titled “A Midsummer’s Night with The Monkees,” a full-blown audiovisual experience with vintage TV clips, commercials and outtakes providing the backdrop for Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith to deliver what the near-capacity crowd came to hear.

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Despite the passing of Davy Jones in 2012, the three surviving Monkees showed they could still provide a crowd-pleasing experience. The trio now ranges in age from 68 (Dolenz) to 71 (Tork), but still perform with their old energy and enthusiasm.

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Jones, a genuine teen idol back in the day, was never mentioned by name, but was featured prominently in the montage of video clips before and during the concert. And, since Mickey sang lead on the majority of their radio hits, and lead vocals were always spread amongst the four, working around Davy’s vocal solos wasn’t as difficult as one would expect.

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The fast-paced show kicked off at 8:07 p.m. with their first hit, “Last Train To Clarksville,” and never let up.

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A genuine highlight of the evening was the participation of Mike Nesmith, who, in the last three decades or so, has rarely toured. In white jacket and silver boots, Nez sang 11 of his Monkees songs, starting with “Papa Gene’s Blues,” and played flawlessly on the 12-string guitar, much to the delight of hardcore fans who wondered if they would ever hear him perform live again.

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Since there was no shortage of his songs during the Monkees years, Nesmith didn’t sing any of his solo hits like “Joanne” or “Silver Moon.” Remember, these are fans who have at least the first two albums memorized down to the last note and were primarily in attendance for the 32 Monkees songs on the set list anyway.

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And Nez didn’t disappoint, performing tracks like “You Told Me,” “The Girl I Knew Somewhere,” “Sunny Girlfriend,” “Sweet Young Thing,” and a pleasant surprise like “Tapioca Tundra,” the B-side to their 1968 hit, “Valleri.”

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Peter’s multi-instrumental talents shined throughout the night, as he moved from five-string bass to guitar to keyboards with ease. “Your Auntie Grizelda,” a longtime fan favorite from More Of The Monkees, still provides Tork with an entertaining vocal vehicle. In remission from throat cancer treatment, Tork’s voice is in a slightly higher register now compared to his natural alto, but he’s still able to sing well enough to contribute, especially when performing the counterpoint vocal on a dual lead with Mickey on “Words.”

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A born showman, Mickey excels as a front man and emcee, whether it’s belting out their popular album track “She,” informing the younger audience members prior to “I’m A Believer” that “we sang this way before Shrek,” pounding away on the tympanis for “Randy Scouse Git” or firing up the audience with his James Brown-influenced workout, “Goin’ Down.” Dolenz also played the drums when he wasn’t strumming a rhythm guitar, mostly on a segment that featured songs from their third album, Headquarters.

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A five-song block from the Head soundtrack included Mickey on the movie’s theme, “Porpoise Song” (co-written by Carole King), Nesmith’s popular “Circle Sky,” and Peter singing his composition “Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again.” Whether or not this helped sell the special Head box sets available at the merchandise table for $70 a pop is hard to say. Tour t-shirts and booklets were moving briskly, though.

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Toward the end of the show, Mickey noted that there was no way they could exclude “Daydream Believer” – Davy Jones’ most memorable lead vocal – from the set list. “We all talked about who should sing it, and we decided that this song belongs to you, the fans.” Without hesitation, Dolenz invited a young lady, appropriately attired in proper ‘60s mini-skirt and go-go boots, to do the honors.

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“You’ve been singing along to all of the songs all night, so you’re getting another chance,” Mickey told her.

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It was difficult to discern if, for this lucky lady, this was an alcohol-related incident or simply the stark realization of being on stage with her heroes. It’s a good bet that she can hit those notes flawlessly in the privacy of her own home. We’ll never know.

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At 9:52, Nesmith closed the show with “What Am I Doing Hangin’ ‘Round” from Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd., and opened the obligatory encore with his “Listen To The Band.” Peter then replicated his album introduction of “Peter Percival Patterson’s Pet Pig Porky” that segues into their classic “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” a powerful conclusion to a fine evening of entertainment that was far from warmed-over nostalgia.

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Instead, it was another shining example of why the Prefab Four’s exclusion from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame remains an ongoing mystery.

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After all, considering that the band was essentially put together by a television casting company for a proposed situation comedy, the Monkees have amazing staying power, as evidenced by the teenagers, sub-teens and 20-somethings singing and dancing in the aisles along with their parents and grandparents.

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As the Monkees left the stage to a rousing standing ovation, a smiling Nesmith stopped, looked at the appreciative crowd, waved and said simply, “Thank you so much!” clearly enjoying the moment and perhaps wondering why he didn’t rejoin his old bandmates for these tours a lot sooner.

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Was Davy missed? He certainly was, especially around the 9:25 p.m. mark.

The Monkees at Arena Theatre, 8/1/2013

By Cory Garcia Fri., Aug. 2 2013 at 9:00 AM

Musically speaking, the Monkees are timeless. There's something about the sound of their big pop hits that is like an auditory time machine that takes you back to the first time you heard it. True, that time may have been sitting on the couch back when their show first hit the airwaves in 1966, being part of the generation that rediscovered them thanks to MTV and Nick at Nite, or having a rad older person clue you in on where that song in Shrek you like really came from, but the songs take you back.

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So the group could have fully embraced the nostalgia angle and phoned Thursday's show. No one would have blamed them -- the median age of the group is 70, after all. If Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Michael Nesmith had decided to hit the road and just sing the hits, crowds still would have been happy.

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But they don't. They go out. They play their instruments. They put on a show.

It's not about just blind nostalgia. It's about enjoying the music in the present.

It's a shame that in the grand scheme of things the Monkees are better-known for their history than for their music. Songs like "Daydream Believer" and "Last Train to Clarksville" will always be around, but so will that bit from The Simpsons where someone taunts Marge because the Monkees didn't play their own songs.

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It's a shame, because they have a really strong catalog, and the trio, along with their backing band, rip through it effortlessly. From the pop classics ("I'm a Believer") and the country-rock of "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round?" to the psychedelic "Porpoise Song" and rockers like "Circle Sky," they manage to pull it all off and make it look easy in the process. Nesmith can still make a guitar sound great, Dolenz has a goofy charm that shines through no matter what he's playing, and Tork plays a mean banjo.

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They played a version of "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" that was more rocking than anything I've seen live this year, most of those performances from bands whose members weren't even alive when the song was first released as a single.

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True, the trio is older, but Dolenz and Tork remain performers at heart. They're funny without being kitschy, silly without being a joke. Nesmith comes off somewhat as serious musician first, performer second, but the man wrote "Mary, Mary," so he's allowed to be proud of his talents.

As for the lack of Davy Jones, you almost don't really notice his absence. He appears in video clips that are shown onscreen during the songs and when the band takes a break, but it's not 'til late in the show that they have to tackle his absence because you really can't play "Daydream Believer" and not talk about the voice of the song.

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But rather than make it a memorial, they make it a celebration by taking a risk and letting someone from the crowd sing the song. "It belongs to you," is how they phrase it. It's one of those choices that could lead to disaster, but in Houston it worked out perfectly: the most adorable old man around got onstage, and even if he didn't have the pipes he had the heart to do the song justice, and it was amazing.

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It's hard to say what happens next in the strange saga of The Monkees. Before the show it might have been hard to believe that they'd have the goods at their age, but whether it was watching Tork dance across stage, Dolenz pound the drums, or Nesmith lead the band through "Circle Sky" you start to think that maybe this doesn't have to be the last tour. Maybe the band is more timeless than anyone thought.

Personal Bias: About a year and change ago I wrote a blog about why The Monkees should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This is something I believe. In about ten years I'll be trolling the people behind the Houston Music Hall of Fame to get Nesmith in since he was born here. Fair warning.

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The Crowd: Well, compared to your average concert crowd: older, more polite, and way more laid-back. Not as many people on their cell phones. Very happy to see Nesmith back in the band.

Overheard In the Crowd: Not a whole lot. Like I said, it was pretty laid-back other than the occasional too-loud drunk or random "I love you, [band member]."

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Random Notebook Dump: My favorite underappreciated dance move is when middle-aged white ladies can't contain their excitement, so they stand up and move their arms in the air side to side. That's real enthusiasm, and it's awesome.

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Random Notebook Dump No. 2: For all the talk about rare songs they're playing on this tour, I was slightly bummed they didn't bust out "Zor and Zam," but I suspect I'm the only one who feels this way.

funkyslsistah said:

I saw them in Saratoga last Wed and the show was really fun. It was a mixture of hits and rare cuts with heavy Nesmith-led songs.

That's cool. Was there a lot of merchandising at the show?

MickyDolenz said:

funkyslsistah said:

MickyDolenz said:

That's cool. Was there a lot of merchandising at the show?

From what I remember, there were several different styled t-shirts, hoodie, program, poster, keychain, and buttons.

Thanks.

http://www.dolenzanddaughters.com/

Guess who?