"The '60s were a fabulous time for me," Peter Tork told 'Rolling Stone' in 2007. "Bert Schneider, the producer of 'The Monkees' TV series, said that when they cast us (Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith) they caught lightning in a bottle. All credit has to go to the producers: It really was Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson’s show."
Bob Rafelson reportedly got the idea for 'The Monkees', television's first music video comedy series, in 1962.
Inspired by Richard Lester's two classic Beatles films, 'A Hard Day's Night' and 'Help', Screen Gems, Don Kirshner and NBC collaborated to create Monkeemania that lasted two seasons on TV (1966-68). As understood, "The name 'Monkees' was derived from a 1957 Elvis Presley movie called 'Loving You'. The double e's in 'Monkees' was a semi-pun, like the 'beat' in 'Beatles'."
Peter Tork continued, "Being a member of The Monkees was like being the star quarterback … Three generations would be watching me and they’d get totally flustered and have no sense of you as a human being." Speaking to 'Goldmine' magazine, author Peter Mills pointed out, "'The Monkees' changed the rules of what you could show on television, with a group of young people having adventures without a parental/authority figure saying 'That's enough'. It brought a possible new model for living for young people right into the American home."
As noted, "The height of Monkeemania came in 1967, the band’s golden year." Peter Mills continued, "The visual signature of the show was freedom. Freedom in the adventures the foursome had, but also the freedom to depart from TV convention and to send-up or satirize those conventions. The Monkees dress up and enter into a world of adventure; just by thinking of them, items and outfits which cause or solve problems magically appear and disappear, difficulties are overcome by wit, guile, charm or just by them being there, and even the bad-guy characters can change, showing redemption is possible.
"This is all appropriate to a show targeted at young kids. One of the great joys and mysteries of 'The Monkees' is how or why it can be that a show or product designed to last no longer than it retained its flavor has lasted for half a century (1966-2016) and is arguably as popular today (in 2016) as it has ever been. And not just with its now aging original audience but each and every time it has been re-run or resyndicated. It's kids who rediscover the show: it's funny, unlike anything else and the songs fit the mood of the show perfectly — fun, energetic, positive. They weren't the 'new Beatles'; they were the one-and-only Monkees."
Richard Harrington of 'The Washington Post' reported in 1986, "Their first album went to No. 1. So did their second, third and fourth. At one point, they held the two top spots on the album charts. In 18 months, they had three No. 1 singles, two No. 2s, two No. 3s - nine top-20 songs in all.
In 1967 they sold 35 million albums, twice as many as The Beatles and Rolling Stones combined. Tours attracted screaming fans; merchandise flew out the door. The word 'mania' was invoked, though it seemed a tad tame.
Hey, hey, they were the Monkees, rock's first cathode ray tube babies."
Micky Dolenz remembered, "A friend told me I had two top-10 records in Billboard. I said, 'What's Billboard?' I had absolutely no idea. I was an actor playing the part of Mickey the Monkee. I think the success took everybody by surprise."
The Monkees first broke up in 1971. In 1986 (some 15 years later), they reunited and performed to sold-out concerts (120 in total) and playing in 100 cities.
Then 41, Micky Dolenz told 'The Washington Post', "It's a whole new generation. We took a one-generation break. It's very strange to have mothers and daughters fighting for our autographs."
Of The Beatles comparisons, "I always felt nothing could be further from the truth. We were nothing like The Beatles, except for the fact that we had long hair. But so did Harpo Marx. In fact, it was John Lennon who compared us to the Marx Brothers.
"We never had to learn to be musicians. I was cast as the drummer so I had more problems than the others. But, with all respect, rock drumming is not brain surgery, and the stuff we did was very simple. I learned the drums just like in 'Circus Boy' (1956-58) I had to learn to ride an elephant. When we went on our first concert tour, we played everything ourselves, and it sounded better than the records because it was much more enthusiastic.
"If you define a rock group as a bunch of guys who record the songs and rehearse them and go out and play them in front of an audience, we definitely became a rock group. From my point of view, 'The Monkees' was simply a television show about a rock 'n' roll group, like 'Star Trek' was a television show about a starship commander. Eventually we became the rock 'n' roll group, like Clayton Moore eventually became the Lone Ranger.
"David and I didn't want control. We were actors, performers, so we were very pleased to be directed. But Mike and Peter were dedicated musicians, and it did wear on them. The powers that be at RCA and Columbia and NBC and Raybert were always trying to control the music. They wanted music that would reach a very wide demographic, which by definition means it has to be simple, melodic, Middle American, not too ethnic.
"Mike's voice was very country-western, which was still an offshoot back then. Peter's was very folky. Davy was into Broadway and Tony Newley, so he sang ballads. I sang the leads by default … There wasn't anybody else who could just scream and have no identifiable accent. We were the first group to combine television, an electronic medium, with music, and join these two forces together in a concerted assault on the consumer. We called them romps at the time and the music video sections were very well defined. We knew how important they were."
In 2013, Michael Nesmith, then 70, launched his first US solo tour since 1993, at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, California. In an interview with 'Rolling Stone', Michael Nesmith told Steve Appleford, "There are more ways to make music now than ever and sounds and ideas that can be realized that were out of reach. So I have been marching up that learning curve – and writing to the new forms."
'Rolling Stone': Storytelling was an important part of your performance. What inspired that?
Michael Nesmith: Storytelling is an important idea for me and it is not limited to a narrative – for me a story only needs a point of view, and perhaps a point, in order to unfold the deeper meanings of events. Stories are expanded metaphors in a certain sense.
'Rolling Stone': Have perceptions of that music changed?
Michael Nesmith: I am not sure that music is even around anymore. There is folk music and so forth and country has morphed into a kind of power pop – but the new music – the new sonics and the way music is incorporated into our lives is profoundly different. The music that finds its way forward always needs a solid spiritual foundation to be relevant, and in that way the presentations can conform to the songs and the songs to the presentations. In the end, music is a voice unique to the time and place and individual, so the perceptions of the past must change to accommodate it.
'Rolling Stone': How do you really feel about your years as a Monkee in the context of your overall career?
Michael Nesmith: The Monkees belong to the people and the fans and not to me – and I don't think they ever can be a part of me in that way. I am forever grateful and happy for the association and feel it is positive and beneficial in my life. In the context of my overall career the Monkees experience is a substantial and welcome part of the puzzle.
