Wow! We've lost another icon. This is happening too often for me. My heart goes out to the family! RIP

--Sean

RIP

If you're anywhere near my age, you might be surprised how easy it was to get into Berklee at the time (I started my first semester in the Fall of 1976). It seems like all you had to do was send in the application with the $20.00 application fee, and you were in. They didn't have auditions to get into the college, only to determine where you would be placed once you got there. It isn't like that now, you do have to audition to get in. I doubt that I'd make it today.

Any way, to keep on topic, I was shocked when I woke up this afternoon and my wife told me about Davy Jones' passing. I remember watching the show when I was young. I know this will sound blasphemous to a lot of people, but I always preferred the Monkees to the Beatles. Mr. Jones will be sorely missed.

pretty close to your age, I graduated HS in 78

my brother and I watched the show as much as possible. I always loved the bit where they'd get into some bad situation and just break the 4th wall and run back to the writer's room and demand a rewrite.

The songs were well-crafted pop songs: Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart as well as a few from Carole King, Neil Diamond and such. Even as we were copping a slightly superior attitude even as young as we were, there was no denying these were catchy tunes.

Recall that Michael Nesmith also had some song credits because he demanded song credits, while some of the other Monkees, including Davy Jones were essentially paid as contract employees. Mr Nesmith made out much better in the long run because of the percentage he got with song credits from record sales. So there's a lesson there for all aspiring musicians, even if hired from an open casting call and manufactured as a band.

This probably helped out as well.



The only real saving grace for those guys IMHO was that Bob Rafaelson, or whoever was in charge of making decisions for them, insisted on them not taking themselves too seriously. You know, he really didn't have to include Zappa's cameo in Head in which he lectures one of them about putting more effort into their music. In some ways, like other Pop stars of that time, it almost seemed like they occasionally needed to remind their fans that there was indeed a whole lot of really interesting stuff going on in the late 1960s that ought to be checked out. Without abandoning them of course...

My father died a week ago and his obit was on the same page as Davy - my dad's was a far bigger article though...

That was pretty much how I remembered what I'd heard long ago, but wikipedia paints a slightly different tale --> when the TV show went off the air the Monkees were still under contract for 3 years for 150K/year. Nesmith chose (and.or was in a position) to buy out his contract for his independence and at least on Wikipedia he had some lean years because of that.

and, of course we all remember Fiirst National Band and esp their electronic/effect enhanced rendition of 'Tumbling Tumbleweeds'

I came very close to meeting him once, as he had a home in the south of England during the 80s, and he was looking for a small recording studio to book to record some demos and I was working at the one he picked.

Unfortunately, he decided the studio was not what he was looking for after the first visit (when I was not there) so I didn't get to meet him. Seems like he was a very pleasant guy and very apologetic for not booking the studio for more time. The owner didn't really care as he was never interested in making a ton of money from it and it was almost a hobby for him.

Always had a soft spot for the Monkees TV show though and probably saw every episode when they were re-run in the 70s.

Mike Nesmith also did the music for a movie called Time Rider, kinda sappy movie but I enjoyed the music.

In the early 80's a band I was in was managed by a guy who owned a studio in Waltham Mass (my first time in a real studio), he claimed to be a bass player on the Monkees albums...but seeing how I was early 20s I would have believed anything so I'm not sure how true that was

I'm sorry for your loss my friend

I think it's unlikely - I think Carol Kaye has been pretty widely documented as the bass player on most of the Monkees recordings (unless it was one of the albums on which Peter Tork actually played).

so what was his name?

yeah I think he was all talk, I haven't seen him in so many years but you know how it is...you're young, you have dreams and you get excited about anything. He did arrange for a showcase in Waltham where we were going to headline, it was before A-smith got back together and Joe Perry was suppose to let him use a P.A. System the JP Project owned. That fell through because I was told I couldn't use my amp which at the time was my plexi head and a 4x12 and I refused, my friends tried to change my mind but when our drummer was told he couldn't use his kit that ended that. I know there was some truth to it becuase he did introduce me to Joe Perry and Steve Tyler.

A music store down the street at the time (not sure if you know Waltham but it was Moody Street) had a Gibson Explorer that was Joe Perry's (maybe it was a destroyer though, the one with an arrow on the headstock). It was for sale for 399 and that's the closest I have come to owning a Gibson but it was trashed. Within less than a year we were 4th row at the Capitol Theatre in Concord NH watching the first show after A-smith got back together. The week before we were at the Frolics at Salisbury Beach watching the last show of the Joe Perry project tripping our brains out on shrooms

That was a store called Dom's music Dom liked me until I bought my plexi because I was looking at a Marshall in his store as well but bought mine at the Music Workshop in Salem NH and he was pissed at me. I forget what I was looking at after that but he came out and said "why dont you go buy it in NH" and I never went back in his store..I mean he gave me great advice