CasiNotes: Beatles-inspired Monkees reunite & hit the road
By Chuck Darrow
Philadelphia Daily News
HEY, HEY, they're the Monkees!
And while they may not be coming to our town, they'll be close enough tomorrow night at Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa in Atlantic City.
For the first time in a decade, the Monkees - specifically, three-fourths thereof - are back on the road recreating the hits that, for a couple of years in the late-1960s, put them at the top of the pop music heap. While it's certainly a momentous occasion for those fans who remember the September 1966 debut of "The Monkees" on NBC-TV, the impetus behind this latest reunion is pretty mundane.
"Since the end of the show [in 1969], there never has been a Monkees office or [operation]," said lead singer/drummer Micky Dolenz in a recent phone call. "It's always the case where some manager or agent tracks us down individually and says, 'Do you wanna get back together and have a tour?' And that's how it happened."
The Monkees' story has long been part of pop culture lore. Inspired by the Beatles' 1964 flick, "A Hard Day's Night," Hollywood producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider decided to create from whole cloth a cheeky but squeaky-clean pop-rock quartet (à la the early Beatles) for a planned weekly musical sitcom.
From open casting calls, the producers culled Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork and Davy Jones, then recruited music mogul Don Kirshner to arm the young men with hook-laden tunes written by the likes of Neil Diamond and the team of (Tommy) Boyce & (Bobby) Hart that were played in the studio by the cream of L.A. session musicians.
The strategy proved to be pure gold as the combination of the Monkees' first single, "Last Train to Clarksville," and the subsequent debut of the NBC TV series launched a show-business phenomenon that, for a couple of years, all but replaced the Liverpool Moptops in the hearts, minds and wallets of American youth.
But after two years of pretending to be musicians on TV, the band members demanded to write and play their own material. Rafelson, Schneider and Kirshner held firm, and that was that. Monkee-mania ended, and the four performers went their separate ways, reuniting (mostly without Nesmith) several times in the ensuing decades, most recently in 2001.
Now Dolenz, 66, (former Daily News Sexy Single) Jones, 65, and Tork, 69, are back on the road for a tour that includes tomorrow night's sold-out Borgata set.
According to Dolenz, while he, Jones and Tork have remained on mostly good terms ("It's like siblings, we have our ups and downs"), the current road trip is a reunion in the truest sense of the word.
"We live in different parts of the world, so we don't tend to bump into each other," he offered. "It's similar to the cast of 'Star Trek.' I don't know if William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy call each other up every day and say, 'Beam me up, Scotty!' "
Dolenz, whose career the past 10 years or so has mostly been spent in Broadway musicals in New York and London's West End, dispelled any notions that Nesmith's refusal to participate in most Monkees' reunions was personal. While claiming he "can't speak for Mike," he noted that Nesmith hardly ever tours solo artist, much less as a Monkee. The passage of 40-plus years has allowed Dolenz to put the Monkees in perspective.
"After 'The Monkees,' " he said, "I moved to England to be a television and film producer. I had nothing Monkees going on in my life at all. When we got back together for the 1986 tour, it came as a huge shock. It became obvious what an impact the show and music had on the American cultural landscape."
While saying nothing has been discussed among the group members, Dolenz intimated that as far as he's concerned, the current tour isn't necessarily the last hurrah for the Monkees.
"My attitude," he insisted, "is always: Make me an offer!"
Borgata Hotel, Casino and Spa, One Borgata Way, Atlantic City, 8 p.m. tomorrow, sold out.
Read more
Philadelphia Daily News
HEY, HEY, they're the Monkees!
And while they may not be coming to our town, they'll be close enough tomorrow night at Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa in Atlantic City.
For the first time in a decade, the Monkees - specifically, three-fourths thereof - are back on the road recreating the hits that, for a couple of years in the late-1960s, put them at the top of the pop music heap. While it's certainly a momentous occasion for those fans who remember the September 1966 debut of "The Monkees" on NBC-TV, the impetus behind this latest reunion is pretty mundane.
"Since the end of the show [in 1969], there never has been a Monkees office or [operation]," said lead singer/drummer Micky Dolenz in a recent phone call. "It's always the case where some manager or agent tracks us down individually and says, 'Do you wanna get back together and have a tour?' And that's how it happened."
The Monkees' story has long been part of pop culture lore. Inspired by the Beatles' 1964 flick, "A Hard Day's Night," Hollywood producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider decided to create from whole cloth a cheeky but squeaky-clean pop-rock quartet (à la the early Beatles) for a planned weekly musical sitcom.
From open casting calls, the producers culled Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork and Davy Jones, then recruited music mogul Don Kirshner to arm the young men with hook-laden tunes written by the likes of Neil Diamond and the team of (Tommy) Boyce & (Bobby) Hart that were played in the studio by the cream of L.A. session musicians.
The strategy proved to be pure gold as the combination of the Monkees' first single, "Last Train to Clarksville," and the subsequent debut of the NBC TV series launched a show-business phenomenon that, for a couple of years, all but replaced the Liverpool Moptops in the hearts, minds and wallets of American youth.
But after two years of pretending to be musicians on TV, the band members demanded to write and play their own material. Rafelson, Schneider and Kirshner held firm, and that was that. Monkee-mania ended, and the four performers went their separate ways, reuniting (mostly without Nesmith) several times in the ensuing decades, most recently in 2001.
Now Dolenz, 66, (former Daily News Sexy Single) Jones, 65, and Tork, 69, are back on the road for a tour that includes tomorrow night's sold-out Borgata set.
According to Dolenz, while he, Jones and Tork have remained on mostly good terms ("It's like siblings, we have our ups and downs"), the current road trip is a reunion in the truest sense of the word.
"We live in different parts of the world, so we don't tend to bump into each other," he offered. "It's similar to the cast of 'Star Trek.' I don't know if William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy call each other up every day and say, 'Beam me up, Scotty!' "
Dolenz, whose career the past 10 years or so has mostly been spent in Broadway musicals in New York and London's West End, dispelled any notions that Nesmith's refusal to participate in most Monkees' reunions was personal. While claiming he "can't speak for Mike," he noted that Nesmith hardly ever tours solo artist, much less as a Monkee. The passage of 40-plus years has allowed Dolenz to put the Monkees in perspective.
"After 'The Monkees,' " he said, "I moved to England to be a television and film producer. I had nothing Monkees going on in my life at all. When we got back together for the 1986 tour, it came as a huge shock. It became obvious what an impact the show and music had on the American cultural landscape."
While saying nothing has been discussed among the group members, Dolenz intimated that as far as he's concerned, the current tour isn't necessarily the last hurrah for the Monkees.
"My attitude," he insisted, "is always: Make me an offer!"
Borgata Hotel, Casino and Spa, One Borgata Way, Atlantic City, 8 p.m. tomorrow, sold out.
Read more