RIP Davy Jones

[Ritchie200]

Heart attack at 66.  The Monkees were great tv when I was growing up!  Lots of good tunes.

Jim

[tubenit]

I was forced to take my sister to see the Monkeys in '68 (?).  Part of the privilege to be able to have my own Volkswagen to drive.

66 is too young to go.

Not a bad show.  However, this was in the days when women screamed at the top of their lungs at the rock stars.  Ugh!

Tubenit

[Willabe]

RIP Davy.

I saw him 1 time in Chgo. at a blues bar years ago, (I left him alone) he seemed to be enjoying the music. Boy was he short.

Here's my favorite Monkeys song, Valleri. I always thought that lead was played by Tommy Tadesco or some other studio cat, but it looks like Mike's able to play it, well some of it anyway?

              

http://youtu.be/tNqUufWLfZc

                           Brad
 

[EL34]

Too bad about Davy

Forgot about that song, that was a good one

Used to wait anxiously for the TV show every week

[drgonzonm]

Not a huge Monkees fan, I thought they were too cutesy.  but I did like the modified Pontiac they drove around on.  Those were the days.  The Monkees, Where the Action Is, Ed Sullivan, The smothers brothers, Tom Jones etc.   Battle of Bands at high School.

Yeah, I'm that old. 

Again, 66, is too young. 

From along Route 66, RIP, Mr. Jones. 

[PRR]

> I always thought that lead was played by Tommy Tadesco or some other studio cat, but it looks like Mike's able to play it, well some of it anyway?

I can't play the video (dogs sleeping), but surely it is all lip-synced? Note how Davey steps away from the mike and keeps singing. Note how we see close-up hands on fretboard with denim jacket, and Mike in denim jacket holding guitar, but not both at once. The wide-shot very consciously keeps all hands hidden or in long-zoom. 

Mike _could_ play, sure. He had a guitar and was doing the LA folk scene. While much early 1960s folk guitar was un-adventurous, you needed some chops. Hadda play neater than the Ramones.

But he (they) was busy with the TV shooting and promotional appearances. Any chore which did not need a REAL Monkee, stand-ins were used. The Wrecking Crew (and others) could wax a song in an hour; the Boys were less experienced, would take all day to track a song, and two more days cracking each other up. Mike _might_(?) need many takes to finger-sync that riff; any of a dozen guitarists could film that in minutes while the Boys did more important stuff. Pick a white-skin guitarist who fit Mike's denim jacket, boom, done.

OK, there is a bit at the end where we see Mike's fingers, from afar, not doing the really tricky part.

The original recording and video has "instrumental backing by the Candy Store Prophets, plus session musician Louie Shelton contributing a flamencoesque guitar solo" "a staged performance showed Michael Nesmith copying Shelton's guitar licks, and singer Davy Jones appearing to physically outgrow his bandmates, through forced perspective and camera trick shots."

By 1968 the Monkees were doing their own recordings; they re-made Valleri very near to the original, including the Prophets and Sheldon. Colgems over-dubbed a brass section.

"Mike Nesmith had been reluctant to remake the song, and adamant against it being released as a single, declaring it the "worst record ever", but he was overruled by Colgems Records."

This was the Monkee's last Top-10 hit.

[Willabe]

The original recording and video has "instrumental backing by the Candy Store Prophets, plus session musician Louie Shelton contributing a flamencoesque guitar solo"

Thank You Sooo Much PRR.                This guys a monster of a git-tar man!    

I knew session players did the tracks, I was just thrown a little to see Mike was able to play some of that lead. That's not an easy lead IMHO.

Although I've read about The Wrecking Crew and have heard them through the years, like everyone else, I'd never heard of Louie Shelton. After reading a little about him, I have been listening to his guitar work (and must have seen his name listed for guitar credits on a good number of records and CDs that I own) for 40+ years.

I found this on him, a very good (and long) interview with him. There's a few you tube videos at the very end of the page.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=35286

      
Tubenit, Doug, heck all you guys, I think you'll like this one, although some of you probably already know of him. He sounds like Larry Carlton here with verb and delay.

http://youtu.be/DjI1y9PcBD8

One more like Carlton, verb, delay, beautiful.

http://youtu.be/1XaBrBhehz8

I've always loved the rhythm guitar part on this song.

http://youtu.be/Ip-LzbWs6FQ

                    Brad      

[PRR]

> thrown a little to see Mike was able to play some of that lead.

Mike and Peter were competent guitarists at some level. Chomping chords was well within Mike's skill. But Mike probably didn't have strong "flamenco" chops (he's a Texas country-rock dude). And ask anybody who stars in a weekly TV show: there is NO spare time for non-TV activity. With a week off, Mike could maybe have dueled Louie on this passage; there wasn't time. (It appears Peter would have been a better bet: he'd played piano young and was recognized on banjo as well as guitar; Steven Stills was the one who suggested Peter to the TV producers.)

The quote suggests Mike played the video. I have a feeling the close-up of fingers on frets was done separately, different set-up; and with time-pressure it would have been expedient to call Louie, Glen, even Carol to do the close-up.

Much later when the Monkees did their own music, there were real problems.

They were fairly good but not really good enough to do recording quality efficiently. Less than 1% of pub-quality musicians can actually pull-together a good album, and are often older (with more musical hours) than the Boys were in the 1960s.

They were different people, which was good for the comedy, but hard to pull-together musically. Mike had a portfolio of his own work (including "Different Drummer"!) in his own dry style; Davey was strongly into classic ballads, Mikey didn't like to do anything twice. Peter actually wanted to manage a post-TV Monkees but couldn't.

[Ritchie200]

I also read somewhere (I think from Micky) that during taping, there was not a minute of footage where they where not all high as kites.  Every break they would be in the dressing room smokin' it up.  Probably explained some of the scenes....!

I always loved the Hendrix connection:

It had to be one of the strangest pairings in rock and roll history. On July 8, 1967, The Jimi Hendrix Experience began a tour as the opening act for… The Monkees. Yes, the cherished guitar god and his group had agreed to support the “Pre-Fab Four” on their American trek. It’s no surprise that the situation didn’t end well – although it had little to do with the relationship between the musicians.

What’s easy to forget is, in the middle of ’67, Hendrix wasn’t yet a rock star in America. Earlier in the year, he’d begun to accumulate a following (especially among rock’s elite) and he’d set his guitar (and the music world) on fire during his appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival. But, the Experience hadn’t scored a mainstream hit in the U.S. yet and they were looking to expand their audience.

Being part of the musical community, the guys in The Monkees were already fans of Hendrix’s music and performances. Micky Dolenz recalled seeing him in New York, while Mike Nesmith was introduced to him through a Beatle.

“I was in London visiting John Lennon, and I was having dinner with him, [Paul] McCartney and [Eric] Clapton,” Nesmith remembered. “And John was late. When he came in he said, ‘I’m sorry I’m late but I’ve got something I want to play you guys.’ He had a handheld tape recorder and he played ‘Hey Joe.’ Everybody’s mouth just dropped open. He said, ‘Isn’t this wonderful?’ So I made a mental note of Jimi Hendrix because Lennon had introduced me to his playing.”

Dolenz and Peter Tork met Hendrix at Monterey Pop, where the seeds were planted for a tour together. Dolenz later said that he viewed both acts as theatrical and that they could be “a perfect union.” The Monkees proposed that the tour promoters contact Hendrix about opening for the band’s summer tour.

Although Hendrix had publicly insulted The Monkees a few months earlier (calling them “dishwater”), he accepted the offer from promoter Dick Clark, presumably because of the huge exposure he would get from the tour. Hendrix and the Experience joined The Monkees on tour in Jacksonville, Florida. While The Monkees were thrilled to have the band on the bill (with members showing up early just to catch Hendrix’s set), Monkees fans were another story.

“Nobody thought, ‘This is screaming, scaring-the-balls-off-your-daddy music compared with The Monkees,’ you know?” Tork said. “It didn’t cross anybody’s mind that it wasn’t gonna fly. And there’s poor Jimi, and the kids go, ‘We want The Monkees, We want The Monkees.’”

Dolenz and Nesmith also recall being embarrassed by their young fans, who would drown out the Experience’s set with cries of “Davy!” (for Monkee heartthrob Davy Jones). Hendrix would stick with the tour for seven dates, before the situation got to him. During a performance at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium, he flipped the crowd his middle finger and walked off stage.

By that point, Hendrix was starting to get traction in America, with “Purple Haze” earning more airplay and making noise on the charts. Wanting to play for people who actually wanted to see and hear him, he asked to be let out of the tour contract – and the Experience and The Monkees parted company amicably. Within the year, Hendrix was one of the biggest rock stars on the planet.

Of course, there is an urban legend that Hendrix didn’t ask to leave the tour; he was kicked out. That rumor (according to Snopes.com) began with music critic Lillian Roxon, who was traveling with the tour. She and a friend came up with a silly press release that claimed the Daughters of the American Revolution had demanded Hendrix’s firing, because his act was “corrupting the morals of America’s youth.” The release was mistaken for the truth, and was reported as fact in many publications, in turn becoming rock and roll legend.