Wow...just last night I was watching his concert tribute for Peter York on youtube......he was an underrated guitarist and songwriter....loved his big blonde electric 12 string.....hilarious guy...now we only have Mickey Dolenz left.....RIP
R.I.P. I saw the Monkees perform after a Beavers AAA game, but Mike wasn't there. He was my favorite of the Monkees.
I remember when they first came out and the next week every kid in school was wearing the belt buckle on the side of their pants, polka dot or paisley shirts and those zip up monkee boots! They marketed the shit out of that show!
I loved his solo stuff with the National Band as he called them..this is like Rick James meets Frank Zappa
My sisters bought Monkees records. They thought I was possessed by the devil because I listened to Jimi Hendrix, assorted big band records and Art Blakey's Caravan. They were right.
Same here...my sister had all the pop 45s...all their albums and probably belonged to their fan club...first album I bought was probably a Herb Alpert record ..second was probably Magical Mystery Tour..then Zappa's first record.....my sister had the Cream and Hendrix records early on and she had a little plastic turntable that looked like a makeup kit I used to borrow...my mom had all the big band stuff from Basie to Ray Charles and I heard those from the time I was born...Radio was so great back in those days....I discovered most rock and roll listening to music from Chicago radio and Little Rock Arkansas....they had powerful broadcast equipment that could reach most of the midwest....You'd hear Sinatra, Hank Williams and the Beatles in sequence ....there were virtually no genre's and a good song was just a good song
I fought with other 7th grade girls who preferred Monkees to Beatles. Will never forget girl who told me Monkees are bigger than Beatles ever were or will be. Oh dear. RIP.
I also got toasted, experienced Hendrix, magnetized towards Coltrane & Miles Davis and read ZAP Comics..
Their biggest hit, I'm A Believer, was written by Neil Diamond. Little known fact, he also wrote Red Red Wine, as a very slow torch song.
The Monkees first two records with all the hits were recorded by some of the greatest musicians in LA....Leon Russel, Glen Campbell, Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Dean Parks, Tommy Tedesco....etc...and they had songs written by Carole King and Neil Diamond....who penned most of their hits....Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith were actually fine musicians in their own but Mickey had to learn basic drums on the show and Davey Jones was the Artful Dodger from the movies....probably had to learn to play tthe tambourine so no....the Monkees were never in the class of the Beatles or Stones but they came from the studio hit factory that made records for the Byrds, Mamas and Pappas and Beach Boys....the Wrecking crew was responsible for the Monkees
I was informed that Ringo Starr was left-handed, yet played on a right-handed drum kit. Didn't there were such a thing!
