Members BlueStrat Posted February 29, 2012 Members Share Posted February 29, 2012 One of the heroes of my youth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tim_7string Posted February 29, 2012 Members Share Posted February 29, 2012 Just saw that. Wow, only 66 years old! I didn't realize he was so young when The Monkees existed. Before my time, but I enjoyed watching the reruns in the '70s and early '80s. Fun show. It was also eye-opening as I became a musician to realize that what we see and what we think is happening isn't always the case (as in, the band didn't write or play their own instruments, at least not at first). I always thought he was funny and charismatic. Sad that he is gone. Here's to you, Davy Jones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueStrat Posted February 29, 2012 Author Members Share Posted February 29, 2012 Actually, Mike Nesmith was a guy who had chops and wrote. It's also an interesting bit of trivia that Stephen Stills auditioned for the Monkees and failed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted February 29, 2012 Members Share Posted February 29, 2012 Actually, Mike Nesmith was a guy who had chops and wrote. It's also an interesting bit of trivia that Stephen Stills auditioned for the Monkees and failed. Yeah, some interesting stories about the Monkees and how all that came about and progressed. Nesmith did contribute a couple of songs, but other than lead vocals, none of the guys played or sang anything on the first two albums. Peter Tork isn't on the first album at all. But they were expected to go on tour and therefore had to kinda-sorta learn how to play. Dolenz had no prior drumming experience whatsoever. There's a classic story about Nesmith deciding to stand up for the band, going into a meeting with Don Kirshner and the producers of the show and threatening to punch Kirshner if they aren't allowed to have more input on the next albums and instead punched a hole in the wall. Kirshner quit/was fired after that incident and the next album featured the boys playing most of the instruments themselves. Apparently that was a pretty laborious process and for the subsequent albums they took more of a "use the good studio players and contribute when and where it makes sense" approach. Kirshner went on to make hit records with The Archies, apparently deciding that if you're going to make to records with non-musicians fronting the band, it's easier if they are animated. They got a lot of crap for not playing anything on those early records which, I don't think would have been nearly so controversial (it WAS a TV show afterall) except the records CLAIM that they did and make no mention of any other players. Sorry to hear about Davy. The Monkees are definately a part of my youth and, for good bad or otherwise, I'm not sure we'll ever see anything QUITE like all of that again.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mr3lions Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 Actually, Mike Nesmith was a guy who had chops and wrote. It's also an interesting bit of trivia that Stephen Stills auditioned for the Monkees and failed. Don't know if it's urban legend but I've been told Charles Manson auditioned too! ooooops just checked and apparently it is an urban legend. http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/monkees.asp nevermind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 Don't know if it's urban legend but I've been told Charles Manson auditioned too! ooooops just checked and apparently it is an urban legend. http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/monkees.asp nevermind I think that after all of that a LOT of people probably "remembered" seeing Charles Manson standing in line at auditions and various other places around LA.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jwlussow Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 Actually, Mike Nesmith was a guy who had chops and wrote. It's also an interesting bit of trivia that Stephen Stills auditioned for the Monkees and failed. Mike's mother also invented Liquid Paper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J.Paul Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 They got a lot of crap for not playing anything on those early records which, I don't think would have been nearly so controversial (it WAS a TV show afterall) except the records CLAIM that they did and make no mention of any other players. . ...probably Glen Cambell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kmart Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 Mike's mother also invented Liquid Paper. Yep.And that ridiculous money is part of why he's never been keen on reunions; he'd take a massive pay cut to be in anything the Monkees cold ever have done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 Yep.And that ridiculous money is part of why he's never been keen on reunions; he'd take a massive pay cut to be in anything the Monkees cold ever have done. Well, presumably he could go on a Monkees reunion tour and STILL collect his share of his mother's royaties from Liquid Paper. But, certainly he probably didn't NEED to do it as much as the others maybe did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nobodyknows Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 Nesmith wrote way more than just a couple of songs and some of them were pretty damn good - he sort of blew any future credibility tho by doing the Monkees thing - Stephen Stills dodged a bullet there - lol - thanks to his bad teeth...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 Nesmith wrote way more than just a couple of songs and some of them were pretty damn good Agreed. When I said "a couple of songs" I was referring to the first two albums on which the Monkees themselves did nothing but sing lead. He wrote two songs and shared writing credits on two others. One of the ones he wrote for those early albums, "Mary Mary", is one of my all-time favorite Monkees songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pine Apple Slim Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 I have this Nesmith album, its pretty darn good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paste Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 Nesmith did contribute a couple of songs, but other than lead vocals, none of the guys played or sang anything on the first two albums. Peter Tork isn't on the first album at all. You can't really tell because he was one of several guitar players on the tracks, but Peter did play some of the guitar on the Nesmith produced songs on that ended up on the first album. He also sang some of the background vocals on the record. According to Nesmith, Tork was actually the most talented/experienced player in the band from an instrumental standpoint. There's a great book, The Monkees: The Day-By-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, that came out awhile back that goes into a lot of detail about almost all of their recording sessions, including who played or sang what. Besides a lot of the regular sessions guys from that time period (Campell, Hal Blaine, etc...) there are some other familiar names, like Harry Nillsson, Jerry Yester from the Lovin Spoonful, and several members of the Buffalo Springfield, including Neil Young and Stills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 You can't really tell because he was one of several guitar players on the tracks, but Peter did play some of the guitar on the Nesmith produced songs on that ended up on the first album. He also sang some of the background vocals on the record. According to Nesmith, Tork was actually the most talented/experienced player in the band from an instrumental standpoint.There's a great book, The Monkees: The Day-By-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, that came out awhile back that goes into a lot of detail about almost all of their recording sessions, including who played or sang what. Besides a lot of the regular sessions guys from that time period (Campell, Hal Blaine, etc...) there are some other familiar names, like Harry Nillsson, Jerry Yester from the Lovin Spoonful, and several members of the Buffalo Springfield, including Neil Young and Stills. Hmm... I seem to remember reading that book and that being where I got the information that the boys themselves contributing nothing to the sessions of the first two albums beside the lead vocals. But perhaps I'm mistaken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted March 1, 2012 Moderators Share Posted March 1, 2012 Davy Jones was a cultural icon. He represented a more family friendly version of all the "illicit" rock at the time. The image of him shaking maracas and singing is forever imprinted on my consciousness. The first time I ever picked up my mom's kitchen broom and rocked out was while watching Davy and the boys mug for the camera on their show. And... fake pop star or not, his rendition of Daydream Believer was great. I still love it. RIP Davy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 3shiftgtr Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 Silhouettes and figures stayClose to what he had to sayAnd one more time the faded dreamIs saddened by the news.It cannot be a part of meFor now it's part of you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paste Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 Hmm... I seem to remember reading that book and that being where I got the information that the boys themselves contributing nothing to the sessions of the first two albums beside the lead vocals. But perhaps I'm mistaken. Just grabbed the book off the shelf and as far as the first album goes, Tork played guitar, and he and Dolenz sang backups on the two Nesmith songs on the first record, plus he was one of several background vocalists on another song, "Let's Dance On." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 Just grabbed the book off the shelf and as far as the first album goes, Tork played guitar, and he and Dolenz sang backups on the two Nesmith songs on the first record, plus he was one of several background vocalists on another song, "Let's Dance On." Cool. Yeah, I found on his wikipedia page that he says he played "third chair guitar" on "Papa Gene's Blues". Also heard he's battle cancer. Tork's "For Pete's Sake" was always one of my favorite Monkees songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paste Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 Tork's "For Pete's Sake" was always one of my favorite Monkees songs. One of my favorites, too. Also really liked "Tear the Top Right Off of My Head," one of his songs that never made it on the original albums, but a bit of it was featured in one of the episodes and two versions of the song ended up on some of the rarities comps and expanded versions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jerry_L Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 Tork also wrote the piano hook for Daydream Believer, a John Stewart composition arranged by Shorty Rogers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Funkwire Posted March 3, 2012 Members Share Posted March 3, 2012 The Monkees' first recording that all of them played on was Mike's 'The Girl I Knew Somewhere', which was a b-side. It's a kickass record. Sorry to see Davy pass...but it seems like he was a bit of a jerk. He headbutted Peter Tork during an argument in the studio! In recent interviews he put down Nesmith, saying Mike wanted to make the Monkees a country band. Nesmith had so much more talent than Davy. And Mickey had the really great voice in the band. Mitch Mitchell wrote a book about his days playing with Jimi Hendrix, and of course he mentioned the tour when the JHE (briefly) opened for the Monkees. He was skeptical about the Monkees, given their TV show origins, but said he was pleased to discover, "Mike was a good guitar picker, Peter a very good banjo player, and Mickey was incredibly funny. Davy Jones was very short." Will David Bowie go back to using his real name now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted March 3, 2012 Members Share Posted March 3, 2012 And Mickey had the really great voice in the band. ^^^THIS. I can't imagine that any one involved in the project could have imagined that the records themselves would go on to be as huge as they did. Yeah, they brought in the top songwriters and musicians but still...this was a TV show and something that hadn't been tried before. I'm sure they knew they'd have some hits but so many have gone on to become bonafide classics. Yes, it was nice that Nesmith had that some real talent and that they all didn't suck, but what made those records work---especially most of the early hits--is that, by luck or by plan, Dolenz had a GREAT 60s rock voice. IMO. Coincidentally we played a 60s themed party last night so we pulled out "I'm A Believer". I dedicated it to Davy and that in itself generated a nice round of applause. RIP, short man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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