Side Trips From The Monkees

In my mind, the Monkees were always unfairly bagged, for not playing their own instruments; or not writing their own songs, which is a peculiar lament in the world of pop music. It really was not a relevant concern until the Beatles and Dylan. No one bagged on Doris Day for not having written Sentimental Journey.

What counts is what is in the grooves ,and for my money the Monkees delivered very good pop/rock from a distinctive era.

The Monkees remain fertile ground for pop exploration. Both pre-and post Monkees careers can be investigated and these grounds. We could talk about the aborted New Monkees, that songwriters Boyce and Hart, along with Dolenz and Jones, tried to forge as Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart, but we will confine ourselves to the Billboard Top 100 singles charts.

Davey Jones was a star and would have continued to have been so without the Monkees. He had a stage career because of Oliver! And was being molded into a safe, teen-boy idol. In his pre-Monkees career, he had a lower reaches of the charts hit with a jaunty vaudevillian number called, What Are We Going To Do? and was featured on some of the teeny-bopper TV shows of the day. Its not bad and gives a measure of what his career might have been without the Monkees. Post-Monkees, he tried to forge a bubble-gum career and only had one-charter with a nifty little bubble-gummer called Rainy Jane.

Perhaps the biggest Musician of the Monkees was Mike Nesmith. I will not discuss his pre-Monkees, rare-as-the-teeth-of-hens singles as Michael Blessing, but rather his post-Monkees chart action. With the First National Band, Mike put forth some credible country rock and got on the charts a few times with songs like, Joanne.

Mickey Dolenz is the oddest of this bunch. He did some recording pre-Monkees with a group, called the One-Nighters. During the end of the Monkees the label that had the rights to it, released it. Were there no Monkees, or had Mickey not made it in, it could have been a "lost" garage band single by a former child actor. The song, Don't Do It dented the Top 100.

The other Musician of the group, Peter Tork had a career that brushed by the Top 100 and deserves some mention. He hung out with the musicians that constituted most of the Lovin Spoonful. I have heard rumors that he dated Cass Elliot. Mickey Dolenz always said that Peter was his entrée into the bohemian counter-culture of the 60s. He was very much a Musician, and a very smart man. He was relegated to a role he hated, the dumb guy of the group, whereas, the others got to play extensions of themselves. Mickey was wacky, Mike was dry, and Davey was cute. Peter had to completely play against what he was. Alas, no Top 100 love for our Peter.

The Monkees are a gift that keeps on giving for the pop music fan. The hits and albums were good enough by any pop measure. The side trips are worthy excursions.