RIP Daydream Believer 1945-2012
I've never really been a good inhabitant of my own era....especially with music and TV. When I was in about 2nd grade, Nick at Nite started airing reruns of sitcoms from the 50's and 60's. My sister and I were soon hooked on "My Three Sons." Pretty much combine some cute guys, and some gentle goofy humor, and we were both happy campers. I'd catch as many of the episodes as I could, mostly in black and white but now and then in color.
Eventually when I was 9 I started noticing commercials for a show which looked like it had the older version of Chip Douglas in it. I wondered if he wound up doing this other show after "My Three Sons." They also kept playing this song "I'm a Believer" that really appealed to me.
So one day after school I saw my very first Monkees episode. Before long I was hooked. It had everything I could want from a television show. There was the gentle goofy humor, the cute guys....but so much more. I loved the music. It was my first foray into the mid 60's. I loved everything about the music...the instruments, the style...the harmonies. I also adored the bright colors of the show...both of that over-saturated 60's style, and just from the styles that were popular at the time. I mean, check out the rainbow room! Overall, it was the sheer charisma of the Monkees that sucked me in.
My friend Kari shared my obsession. We would get dressed up and pretend we were marrying our favorite Monkees. She'd always marry Davy and I'd always marry Micky. During one such game, we put on "More of the Monkees" played "The Day We Fall in Love" and pretended it was a phone call I was getting. I did some sort of exaggerated reaction to the "romantic phone call." Then at the end Kari said "Just kidding...it's really MIKE!" (It took me another 10 years to appreciate Papa Nez....)
While my favorite Monkee will always be Micky Dolenz...I have a strong appreciation for Davy as well. I was recently watching their audition tapes and realized 3 out of 4 of the parts Micky could have done by himself. But there was no substitute for Davy....the sensitivity, his Broadway/Music Hall sense of showmanship....like every time he launched into a rousing rendition of Swanee River. His sense of comedic timing was also impressive. Remember "the cute one" is almost never "the funny one" as well. That English accent didn't hurt either.
That summer my father took Kari and I to the Monkees concert. It was my first real concert. Kari and I both bounced up and down the whole time. This must have been part of the entertainment for my father as Kari and I were both pretty nerdy and introverted. The line that thrilled me most that evening was Davy shouting out "This is 1987!!!" I think it delighted me beyond measure that somehow these people who were part of a ....TV show seems too weak a word....that I loved so much, were in the same time and space as me.
However they would soon be eclipsed. In some of our Monkee games, Kari and I needed villains. She suggested maybe the Beatles. I hadn't heard of them. She'd noticed in one episode the Monkees throw darts at a Beatles poster. However, like all my obsessions, I was reading massive amounts about the Monkees and the Beatles kept coming up, comments about the Monkees being "plastic Beatles." I started to wonder if I might like these Beatles too. Then one day MTV (which had been one of the main catalysts in the Monkees revival in 1986) started airing the Beatle cartoons....and it was all over.
The Monkee tapes eventually were neglected among my music collection. Although my whole family went to see the Monkees when they came to the Walworth County fair....it was probably 1990. While it was a bit sad seeing them in that setting after Alpine Valley....it was a pleasure getting to hear them with the hysteria calmed down. I got to appreciate the tight harmonies and the sheer entertainment of it all. My mom and I got a kick out of the fact that Micky was improvising a lot of one-liners. We wound up seeing them perform twice that night, and he used different jokes in each set.
About 10 years later, I got the urge to see the Monkees episodes again. In my 20's I began to have a hobby of revisiting a lot of what I used to like in my childhood to see how well it did or didn't hold up. Thanks to the joys of interlibrary loan, a bunch of Monkees episodes were delivered to me on Valentine's Day. I proceeded to have one of the best Valentine's Days of my life revisiting with the old friends. I became reacquainted with the show and the music and fell in love with them all over again. I still love the tunes and appreciate the comedy all the more. I also have gratitude to the Monkees for being that safer group to try before the Beatles....kind of like a childhood sweetheart introducing you to the love of your life.
It's become a bit of a tradition for me to watch the Monkees during February. Even had a Monkee Partee last year. I'd just finished another round of watching all my DVD's...even had an hour in the car of singing Monkees tunes last Sunday.
In my mind, one of the ultimate measures of success is to be somebody's happy childhood memory. Tonight, 25 years after I first heard that famous drum beat, and saw animated stars in his eyes for the first time...my inner 9 year old's heart is breaking. Godspeed and thank you David Thomas Jones.
Eventually when I was 9 I started noticing commercials for a show which looked like it had the older version of Chip Douglas in it. I wondered if he wound up doing this other show after "My Three Sons." They also kept playing this song "I'm a Believer" that really appealed to me.
So one day after school I saw my very first Monkees episode. Before long I was hooked. It had everything I could want from a television show. There was the gentle goofy humor, the cute guys....but so much more. I loved the music. It was my first foray into the mid 60's. I loved everything about the music...the instruments, the style...the harmonies. I also adored the bright colors of the show...both of that over-saturated 60's style, and just from the styles that were popular at the time. I mean, check out the rainbow room! Overall, it was the sheer charisma of the Monkees that sucked me in.
My friend Kari shared my obsession. We would get dressed up and pretend we were marrying our favorite Monkees. She'd always marry Davy and I'd always marry Micky. During one such game, we put on "More of the Monkees" played "The Day We Fall in Love" and pretended it was a phone call I was getting. I did some sort of exaggerated reaction to the "romantic phone call." Then at the end Kari said "Just kidding...it's really MIKE!" (It took me another 10 years to appreciate Papa Nez....)
While my favorite Monkee will always be Micky Dolenz...I have a strong appreciation for Davy as well. I was recently watching their audition tapes and realized 3 out of 4 of the parts Micky could have done by himself. But there was no substitute for Davy....the sensitivity, his Broadway/Music Hall sense of showmanship....like every time he launched into a rousing rendition of Swanee River. His sense of comedic timing was also impressive. Remember "the cute one" is almost never "the funny one" as well. That English accent didn't hurt either.
That summer my father took Kari and I to the Monkees concert. It was my first real concert. Kari and I both bounced up and down the whole time. This must have been part of the entertainment for my father as Kari and I were both pretty nerdy and introverted. The line that thrilled me most that evening was Davy shouting out "This is 1987!!!" I think it delighted me beyond measure that somehow these people who were part of a ....TV show seems too weak a word....that I loved so much, were in the same time and space as me.
However they would soon be eclipsed. In some of our Monkee games, Kari and I needed villains. She suggested maybe the Beatles. I hadn't heard of them. She'd noticed in one episode the Monkees throw darts at a Beatles poster. However, like all my obsessions, I was reading massive amounts about the Monkees and the Beatles kept coming up, comments about the Monkees being "plastic Beatles." I started to wonder if I might like these Beatles too. Then one day MTV (which had been one of the main catalysts in the Monkees revival in 1986) started airing the Beatle cartoons....and it was all over.
The Monkee tapes eventually were neglected among my music collection. Although my whole family went to see the Monkees when they came to the Walworth County fair....it was probably 1990. While it was a bit sad seeing them in that setting after Alpine Valley....it was a pleasure getting to hear them with the hysteria calmed down. I got to appreciate the tight harmonies and the sheer entertainment of it all. My mom and I got a kick out of the fact that Micky was improvising a lot of one-liners. We wound up seeing them perform twice that night, and he used different jokes in each set.
About 10 years later, I got the urge to see the Monkees episodes again. In my 20's I began to have a hobby of revisiting a lot of what I used to like in my childhood to see how well it did or didn't hold up. Thanks to the joys of interlibrary loan, a bunch of Monkees episodes were delivered to me on Valentine's Day. I proceeded to have one of the best Valentine's Days of my life revisiting with the old friends. I became reacquainted with the show and the music and fell in love with them all over again. I still love the tunes and appreciate the comedy all the more. I also have gratitude to the Monkees for being that safer group to try before the Beatles....kind of like a childhood sweetheart introducing you to the love of your life.
It's become a bit of a tradition for me to watch the Monkees during February. Even had a Monkee Partee last year. I'd just finished another round of watching all my DVD's...even had an hour in the car of singing Monkees tunes last Sunday.
In my mind, one of the ultimate measures of success is to be somebody's happy childhood memory. Tonight, 25 years after I first heard that famous drum beat, and saw animated stars in his eyes for the first time...my inner 9 year old's heart is breaking. Godspeed and thank you David Thomas Jones.