If you’re of a certain age, the Monkees were once a very big deal. For two-and-a-half years I’d loved the Beatles, and “Revolver” had just been released. I was amazed by their progression, but I still loved light Pop music, and I thought the Monkees were great.
Way back in January, the Smithsonian Channel showed “Making the Monkees,” about the fascinating birth, brief life, and demise of the Pre-Fab Four, the all-time greatest manufactured Pop music entity. Here are five minutes from the documentary, focusing on the conflict between the group — especially Mike Nesmith, not so much Davy — and music supervisor Don Kirshner.
Mike’s interview is over ten years old, but the others were interviewed more recently. All of them, after these many years, still speak with anger and bitterness over what happened. Everybody was right, and everybody was wrong, but Kirshner comes across as a fool, for thinking that any four guys could have done what the Monkees did.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/NOV/Monkees.flv 512 384]
Jean — Lois still lives in Norwalk. Her name is Esposito. Paul Shaffer did the Kirshner impression on SNL. What was bizarre about the show, “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert,” was that it featured acts, like Black Sabbath and Joe Walsh, that were as far away from his Brill Building stable as could be.
If the Monkees were merely “hired hands,” wasn’t that also true of Kirshner? The TV show wasn’t supposed to support the records, it was the other way around, wasn’t it? If Kirshner really had been the boss, he would have won the battle of wills, but he didn’t. How much post-Beatles success did Kirshner have before the Monkees? Not much that I can recall at the moment. He could have played a much smarter game than he did.
Where do I start? I won’t say what I think of Don K, except, didn’t they used to do a howlingly funny take-off of him on SNL? He reminds me of “Dr. Evil.”
Having known Davy Jones fairly closely for a while (from 1999 to 2002), I can say this: they WERE p****d, and yes, Mike was SUPREMELY p****d. You can clearly see that refected in Mike’s expression at the hotel photo shoot. “If looks could kill.”
Davy had already had a taste of show biz (“Coronation Street” and “Oliver”) and was more willing to go along with Kirschner’s BS than the other three as he felt is was “a necessary evil,” as he told me. And he COULD really play the tambourine! 😉 Dave still tours, of course, when not living 30 miles down the road from yours truly.
Pete is a great guy and has his own band, “Shoe Suede Blues.” When I could not make it to one of his concerts with the head of Davy’s fan club, he insisted that every one of his band members sign a promo photo for me. He really loves “first generation” Monkees fans. As for Mickey Dolenz, he sometimes tours with Davy. I haven’t kept up with Davy or Monkee stuff in years since the Monkee fan club I used to write for is pretty much disbanded.
Lizzie, as you know, Doug and I fall pretty much in your age bracket. We adored the Monkees and their music (remember Art Club, Dougie?), and better yet, got to watch our mother’s friend Vince Beck co-star in it three times. I was a pretty fair artist back then and my girlfriends made me draw cartoons and even full-length comic books of the Monkees, usually getting ending with them marrying Davy. If only I had just one of those now! Lois Nardi, where are you?
And yes, I do remember “Where the Action Is.” I wasn’t a huge fan of “Paul Revere and the Raiders,” but I loved their funky uniforms.
Finally: Why is it that I HATE “Sugar, Sugar” so much? Is there something wrong with me? Doug! Can you send me a full-length dub of that special for Xmas? 😉
I was quite young when the Beatles became a sensation in America. I was still in elementary school. But due to the influence of my Beatles fan brother, who is ten years older than I am, I jumped right into Beatlemania. I was among their youngest fans, no doubt.
As the Beatles matured and evolved into more sophisticated artists, their music became deeper and more complex. And the older Beatles weren’t the cute lovable “moptops” anymore. So as I got into 7th and 8th grade, the time was ripe for a new group to appeal to the young teens to get crushes on. One of my best friends was crazy about the Monkees, – Davy Jones in particular.
As you say, Doug, the timing of the Monkees was perfect, to appeal to a new fan base of girls too young to go out car dating, but old enough to buy Tiger Beat magazine, put pinups of the Monkees on their bedroom walls, and have romantic crushes on these new music stars. Yup – they were in the right place at the right time, all right!!!
I think the Monkees produced some pretty decent music, especially for a group that was put together as a formula. I wasn’t “wild” about them, but I enjoyed their hits, for the most part, well enough.
As for me at that time, I used to run home from school every day to catch Dick Clark’s late afternoon musical TV show, “Where the Action Is.” Remember that???!!! From watching it, I discovered and developed a huge crush on Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders.
After the group, Mark Lindsay had a solo career for awhile, and later toured with other oldies groups. He lived in Hawaii for a time, and now I think he is a radio deejay in Portland, Oregon. The Pacific Northwest was the original, loyal fan base area for Paul Revere and the Raiders in their early days.
So, what are the various Monkees employed doing these days??? I love the “whatever happened to…” game!!!
The man who owns the domain name “Monkeemania.com” speaks! One thing’s for sure — the timing of the Monkees was perfect, if perhaps somewhat by accident. They couldn’t have known the Beatles would stop touring as soon as “Revolver” was out, and that they wouldn’t have another album until the TV season was over. The Monkees had quite a romp!
“Sugar, Sugar”? “SUGAR, SUGAR”??!?!?! I really don’t think so, Donnie. Maybe “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You”? That was the controversial record that he tried to rush-release, the mythical Colgems 103, which no one seems to have ever seen. It was released with a different flip-side — a MIKE song — “The Girl I Knew Somewhere” — as Colgems 104, after Mr. Kirshner was booted. “Sugar, Sugar” was co-written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim, who didn’t start working together until 1968, I believe. “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies, with Ron Dante and Toni Wine singing the leads, wasn’t released until July 1969 – two and a half years after the famous scene mentioned in this clip. It didn’t appear on the first Archies album, which is strange if it was already written and was deemed such a sure-fire hit by “The Man With The Golden Ears.” In fact, it was actually the THIRD Archies single. Maybe Jeff Barry can shed some light on this, but I doubt it. Yeesh – I cringe when I see Donnie Kirshner speak. Mike was right. “Ego, the Living Planet” in the flesh. Nevertheless, I still love the Archies and the first two Monkees albums, Donnie!