The Beatles top the chart in their fourth week on the chart with "Eight Days A Week." (This one shot up the chart from #51 to #11 to #3 to #1.)
"My Girl" by The Temptations holds at #2 ... while four other Top Ten Hits make significant moves up the chart, all earning bullets in the process:
"The Birds And The Bees" climbs from #9 to #4, "Stop! In The Name of Love" moves up ten places from #15 to #5, "Ferry 'Cross The Mersey" by Gerry and the Pacemakers now sits at #7, up from #11 last week, and "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat" by Herman's Hermits bursts into The Top Ten AT #10, up nine places from the week before.
British acts are doing just fine on this week's chart ...
Besides The Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Zombies and Herman's Hermits in The Top Ten, we've got Shirley Bassey at #12 with "Goldfinger," Petula Clark at #16 with her former #1 Hit "Downtown," Peter and Gordon at #20 with "I Go To Pieces" and The Dave Clark Five right behind them at #21 with "Come Home," "Yeh Yeh" by Georgie Fame at #22, The Animals make an eleven point move from #42 to #31 with their latest, "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," Chad and Jeremy climb fifteen spots with "If I Loved You" (#47 to #32), "All Day And All Of The Night" by The Kinks (#34), "What Have They Done To The Rain" by The Searchers (#46), "Come Tomorrow" by Manfred Mann (#47), The Moody Blues at #60 with "Go Now" (up 17 spots), Adam Faith ("It's Alright, #61), "Come And Stay With Me" by Marianne Faithfull (#62 ... up from #100 last week ... that's a move of 38 places!!!), "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party" by The Beatles (the flip-side of their now #1 Hit "Eight Days A Week"), "Heart Of Stone" by The Rolling Stones (which falls to #74), John Barry's instrumental version of "Goldfinger" (#78, up twenty spots), "4 By The Beatles" at #79, "Tired Of Waiting For You," new at #80 for The Kinks, "Girl Don't Come" by Sandie Shaw (#83), "Love Potion Number Nine" (#85 for The Searchers), Ian Whitcomb, #88 with "This Sporting Life," "I'm Telling You Now," a song that will do very well for Freddie and the Dreamers, premiers at #81, "Did You Ever" by The Hullaballoos (#92) and Dusty Springfield's latest, "Losing You," new at #96. (For those of you keeping score, that's still 29%.)
60 YEARS AGO TODAY:
3/8/65 – David Bowie makes his television debut as part of
the group The Mannish Boys, performing their new single “I Pity The Fool.”They appear on the British television program
“Gadzooks! It’s All Happening.”
Mick Jagger was a surprise presenter at this year's Academy Awards program.
He explained it this way ....
“As much as I love doing it I wasn’t
the first choice. They really wanted Bob Dylan to do this. Bob didn’t
want to do it because he said the best songs this year were obviously in
the movie ‘A Complete Unknown.’ Bob said, 'You should find somebody
younger.' I said, 'Okay, I’m younger. I’m younger than Bob. I’ll do it.'
So here I am."
From Mark Bego, who wrote the book on Joe Cocker, "With A LOT Of Help From His Friends," after our piece ran the other day ...
They
say that the greatest form of flattery is imitation. In the case of
The Beatles and Joe Cocker, the raspy voiced singer from Sheffield so
flattered the Fab Four that Sir Paul McCartney has become the strongest
proponent to see Cocker inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
In his career, Joe recorded nine different Beatle classics, and they are
all unique, and they are all highlighted in my book 'Joe Cocker: With a
LOT of Help From His Friends.'" I stand with Paul McCartney. It's
truly 'Cocker Time!'
Mark Bego
A buddy
of mine I was chatting with last week about Joe Cocker was a member of the Mad
Dogs band in 1970! He's from Nebraska, but was in Rotary Connection and
Aorta for a bit, too. Bobby Jones. Great guitarist.
Clark
Besch
Highlights from the two shows that Ringo taped at The Ryman Theater a couple of months ago will air as a two hour television special next Monday Night (3/10) on CBS. Ringo performs selections from his new country album "Look Up" as well as a few of his Beatles classics, alongside country and pop starsSheryl Crow, Rodney Crowell, Mickey Guyton, Emmylou Harris, Sarah
Jarosz, Jamey Johnson, Brenda Lee, Larkin Poe, Billy Strings, Molly
Tuttle, the War and Treaty, and Jack White. (Some of these artists will also perform Ringo tracks on their own, such as Jack White covering “Don’t Pass Me By” and Molly Tuttle covering
“Octopus’s Garden.”)
Here's a short clip showing Ringo performing his 1971 #1 Hit "It Don't Come Easy." (Boy, who would have EVER thought that Ringo would sound better than Paul McCartney all these years later?!?! Starr turns 85 in July of this year!)
It is a sad day today for many
Beatles fans. Joey Molland from Badfinger has passed away.
Joey was a regular at Beatle conventions, especially the Fest for Beatle
Fans. He would entertain everyone with his guitar playing, singing and
stories. You would always see Joey with a big smile on his face, and he,
of course, had the typical Liverpool kindness and humor.
Timmy
Lovin’ the new Fest For Beatles Fans logo for 2025 …
Hi Kent,
Every story about Robert John dwells mostly on his big hit
"Sad Eyes" and maybe his first chart tune when he was a kid.
But in between those years, he made some amazing "blue eyed soul.""If You Don't Want My Love" was one,
but there were quite a few others that didn't chart. He had a run on
A&M including "When the Party's Over," "Raindrops, Love and
Sunshine," "Hushabye" on Atlantic, "Can't Stop Loving
You" on Columbia and many other bubbling under great tunes.
Many had a similar formula ... quiet verses leading to a
massive chorus with John's falsetto soaring over the background singers.I have collected a lot of these songs and
while the formula is obvious, it's impossible not to be blown away by his
singing every time. I believe many of the background voices are his
also.
John wrote a lot of tunes with Michael Gately, another long
lost artist who made two really strong albums before dying too young.
Those two albums are produced by Robert John and he's all over them. If
you like lush, extremely melodic tunes, Gately and John's work is a must
have. There's even Paul Kossoff on a couple of his tunes on one of the
lps. That was a pleasure to find after thinking I had heard every guitar
solo Kossoff ever did beyond his work with Free.
Robert John made some great music in the late 60's and
early 70's and I've always hoped that someone would compile them all in one
place. He really was quite prolific even though the charts didn't invite
him in very often. It's hard to find much info on him other than the 'Sad
Eyes' era. He really had a lot more to offer than that.
Jim House
So sad to hear about the passing of Dolly Parton's husband of 58 years, Carl Dean. They were together for as longas I knew who Dolly Parton was!!! You're in our hearts, Dolly, as we feel your grief. (kk)
I was just sent the tictoc video
of Billy Joel's Mohegan concert where he fell backward onto the stage after
trying to pitch his microphone stand into the audience. There was a set of
flourishes and twirls he accomplished before this, albeit a bit on the awkward
side. Strange that I had not heard anything about this before. He did accept
the fall and made it part of the show, so maybe people thought it was
planned.
Shelley J Sweet-Tufano
Freddie Garrity continued the musical trend of nerdy glasses on singers (probably started by Buddy Holly?).
Some of my online friends admire Donnie Iris (The Jaggerz), who also continued the trend.
Garrity died in Bangor, Wales, for whom a few cities/towns in the U.S. are named, including one near me in Pennsylvania.
Bob Frable
Backtracking for a moment to the
"Rich Appel's Annual Tele-Lection Poll" as appeared in FH's
Ranking TV Show Themes where M*A*S*H didn't make his list …
The show appears here nightly with
back-to-back episodes on METV at just about the time we're making dinner. We've
recently had it on again fairly often during that time and it's so
interesting how their stories stand up. What a Great Show! Funny, Serious,
Emotional, Thought Provoking, Heart-Wrenching, Uplifting, Respectable and so
much more! The other night, Linda and I commented on what a Great Theme Song it
had! Soft, subtle, melodic, memorable, pleasant, highly identifiable!
I demand a recount!
Sidebar: Here's the Gift from
my Oldest Son, Craig, many years ago back when M*A*S*H was probably my Favorite
Show during its long series run!
In fact, I'm hearing its Theme
in my head as I write this! How about you while reading this?!
CB ( which stands for "Cadre
Boy!" )
Suicide may be painless ...
But not making The Top Ten Favorite TV Themes in Rich's poll is downright devastating!!!
(In
our own polls of favorite TV themes, M*A*S*H went from #31 in 2013 to
#8 in 2020 ... so there are definitely some fans out there!)
Speaking
of checking the polls, I just took a quick glance at The Fan Vote for
this year's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Nominees and can report that
Phish still has a commanding lead.
The
Top Seven Artists now each have at least 85,000 votes ... but Phish is WAY
ahead with over 180,000. They are followed by Billy Idol, closing in on 115,000 votes, Bad Company with just under 110,000, Soundgarden with right around 108,000), Cyndi Lauper (who just passed 100,000), Joe Cocker (96,000) and Chubby Checker (86,000)
On Saturday, March 8th, Micky
Dolenz, the last surviving member of The Monkees, turns 80 years old.Over the course of the last year and a half, Micky,
now billed as The Voice of the Monkees,wason a
well-received national tour.
During 2014, I interviewed Dolenz inside his
San Fernando Valley home. I was accompanied by videographer and definitive
Monkees’ scholar Gary Strobl.
I have my own bio-regional relationship with
Dolenz and The Monkees that began in Hollywood during late
1965, by and primarily during 1965-1968 for Raybert Productions, helmed by
producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, overseeing The Monkees at
the studio in Gower Gulch. Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker had developed it for
TV adaptation.My mother Hilda worked
for their production company.
Hilda helped type the television scripts
for The Monkees, was in the stenography pool on the lot and
did dictation for author and screenwriter Lillian Hellman. She worked for Marty
Erlichman, who managed Barbra Streisand and Peter Guber in his first job in
1968 at Columbia as a management trainee.
I first encountered the four members of The
Monkees when they held their first press conference in 1966 before the
series was broadcast. I remember two events introducing the Monkees, one
in Hollywood at the Columbia Pictures studio and in Burbank at the Columbia
Pictures ranch.
During 1966, my brother Kenny and I, along
with our mom, assembled the first-ever yellow colored press kits
introducing The Monkees on our 5th Street
kitchen table that unit publicist Howard Brandy created. Howard had worked on
the Beatles’ movies Hard Day’s Night and Help! Nick
LoBianco designed the Monkees’ guitar logo.
Micky Dolenz in 1965 was a former child actor
knocking around Hollywood, looking for his next gig. Peter Tork was a folkie
from Greenwich Village. Michael Nesmith possessed real chops - a guitarist and
songwriter bursting with ambition. And Davy Jones was an English lad with a
Cockney charm and stage training.
Producer Bob Rafelson had been a story editor
on the TV series Play of the Week and later worked as an
associate producer for Desilu Studios and Screen Gems. Bert Schneider’s father,
Abraham Schneider, was President of Columbia Pictures. Schneider’s career began
at the Screen Gems television division where he met Rafelson and formed Raybert
Productions, the future home of The Monkees.
Davy Jones at the time was a contract player
with Screen Gems/Columbia, and had appeared onstage at the Music Center in Los
Angeles when writers Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker said, “We’re going to write
a show for you.”
Davy was already in The Monkees before
Rafelson and Schneider held auditions in Hollywood for their TV endeavor about
a rock group. Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Michael Nesmith were cast in The
Monkees NBC television series, which debuted on September 12, 1966.
I was around the Raybert offices monthly and
on the set of The Monkees a handful of times watching segments
of episodes being taped.
I encountered Stan Freberg, Godfrey Cambridge,
Dick Kiel, Paul Mazursky, and Rupert Cross on The Monkees’ production
and around Frank Zappa, booked as a guest along with Tim Buckley and Charlie
Smalls.
The Columbia studio had a massive wardrobe
department, assorted props and costumes previously used for The Three Stooges shorts
in the 1930s and ‘40s.
Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper occasionally
were in the studio’s coffee shop. Jack co-wrote HEAD, the
Monkees’ feature-length film. He was into Bob Dylan and caught his 1963 and
1965 Hollywood Bowl concerts. I spoke with Larry “The Mole” Taylor, the bass
player in of Canned Heat, and guitarist Gerry McGee, who both played on The
Monkees’ albums. Composer and conductor Stu Phillips provided the
background music for the 1966-1968 programs.
The Monkees shooting schedule was high energy. We
were politely instructed not to speak with the directors toiling on the clock.
James Frawley did half of them. One frame-changing aspect of The
Monkees’ ongoing telegenic success was employing many first-time
directors and the implementation of quirky interstitial editing techniques that
drove the visual momentum.
In 1967, The Monkees won two
Emmy awards for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial
Achievement in Comedy.
The Monkees recorded for Colgems, distributed
via RCA Victor. It was a joint 1966-1971 venture between Screen Gems, the
television division of Columbia Pictures, and RCA Victor.
At Raybert 1966-1968 there were no entourages
in this coveted Hollywood war zone. It was an environment where the seeds in
the top soil of BBS Films were planted. Last decade, Bert Schneider told me the
success of The Monkees made the 1969 BBS movie Easy
Rider possible.
(Harvey Kubernik) Q: You were in
show business before The Monkees and done promotions.
(Micky Dolenz) A: For me,
and I’m not speaking for anybody else, I had already done all of this stuff. I
had already been on a big promotional event. I rode my elephant down Fifth
Avenue in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and on stage with the Rockettes.
On trains going across country doing whistle stop promotions for Circus
Boy. So it was like I’ve done this. I had been through the process.
Press things. Been there and done that.
Q: You played guitar on the Circus
Boy press tour.
A: I did “Purple People Eater” by Sheb
Wooley. I did Billy Williams’ “Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter” [a
Fats Waller tune] and David Seville’s “The Witch Doctor.” Songs I was hearing
on radio stations in Los Angeles and learning on my guitar. I must have started
guitar when I was eight or nine. Classical guitar and then folk music. I would
play when kids came over for a party. Or I would go to a party. I wasn’t
Segovia but I could do ‘Tom Dooley.’
My first public appearance was in 1957,
opening for Bimbo the elephant at Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh. I opened for
the elephant. Two songs with a local bandstand band. They had fair outfits on
and backed me on “Witch Doctor” and “Purple People Eater.” And then the
elephant came on. We went to places like Pittsburgh and Chicago. A big press
event without the elephant. Then New York and Grand Central Station. I was
introduced in the middle of a Radio City Music Hall thing.
Q: Before The Monkees television
series you auditioned for three TV pilots.
A: I don’t remember anything about them except
the one that became The Happenings. I don’t know why. Maybe because
it did go to pilot. I remember my audition for The Monkees very
well. I had an agent, Ted Wilk, who said, “You have an audition.” I went down.
I think the reason I remember it well because it was in the same building and
possibly the same office that I auditioned for in the fifties for Circus
Boy. Columbia Pictures and the executive offices were all in a building on
Gower. It was one of the ugliest offices. (laughs). It looked like a brick
wall. Paramount had the gate, and Universal had the entrance, and this was a
door. Anyway, I went to the audition.
You’ve heard the story a million times.
Obviously, I got a call back. The next one was probably the interview. Asking
questions and I think it was on the set of TheFarmer’s
Daughter. The next one I’m pretty sure was the musical one. They had a back
lot with guitars and drums, keyboards. It was kind of like a jam, an open mike.
That’s where I played “Johnny B. Goode” on the guitar. And the last one that I
remember was the screen test with scripts and scenes. I think by then there
might have been eight candidates left.
The only one I remember was Davy. I don’t
remember Mike, That’s because Davy and I just had a lot in common. We had both
been in television, and he had been on stage. I had been a child on stage.
Maybe they paired us up. I do remember one of the major scenes I did with Davy,
a twosome. We then came up with a bit of shtick where he and I were wearing
hats. Bill Chadwick, Michael and Peter were there. Bill later worked with us as
a songwriter and on the series. I recall Davy and I had a lot to talk about concerning
TV, film, and stage. And that was it. We had a jam.
I went back to school at Los Angeles
Trade-Technical College in downtown L.A. to study architecture. I never was
formally trained in acting. I had guitar lessons. But never singing or acting
except acting through my mother and father. I was doing day jobs on TV shows. I
was going to school. I wanted to be an architect. I went to Valley Junior
College. If the architect thing didn’t work out, I was gonna fall back on show
business. That was my mantra.
Q: Were you drafted or received a notice of
induction to take a physical?
A: I did get a draft notice, a draft card.
Between my bad leg [owing to Perthes disease] and that I was too skinny, 119
pounds and living in an apartment. And I couldn’t see. I was near-sighted. I
got 4F status.
Q: I know you graduated from Ulysses S.
Grant High School in Van Nuys, located the San Fernando Valley. Where were you
living at the time of The Monkees audition?
A: In Reseda somewhere on Sherman Way, an
apartment building with Tiki and palm trees. That was where I moved when my
parents moved up north. My mom remarried and moved to San Jose. I was going to
school and stayed for that semester. My first kind of proper girlfriend lived
in Nevada and we had a very serious relationship. I was going back and forth to
San Jose. I had stayed in my grandmother’s house.
It’s August 1965, I’m going to school and
watching the L.A. Watts riots, back and forth to San Jose and driving up and
down the 5 freeway back and forth trying to go see this girl.
But I said to my mom I wanted to stay in L.A.
That is where my friends are and I’m going to school. And she organized it and
I got a little single one room apartment. On Reseda Blvd right by Sherman Way,
right across the street from this girl. And I would walk out and stare at her
window and drive away.
I think my car was a 1962 black Grand Prix 4
speed. Incredible car. And that’s where I was living when my agent called
for The Monkees audition. Sitting in that apartment. I was
drumming with the Missing Links. I stayed in touch with Mike Swain of the band
after they fired me. And then at some point my agent Ted Wilk called me and
said ‘you got it. You are one of The Monkees. You got the pilot.’ I
then traded my car in for a Volkswagen Beetle.
I remember being excited but not when I
got Circus Boy. I really remember that. I was ten years old. I was
Mickey Braddock then. I remember walking out in the parking lot of my dad’s
restaurant looking up at the stars ‘this is really important.’ Even at age ten.
I knew The Monkees was going
to be a pilot. And I knew that pilots mostly do not get sold. I saw the ad
in Variety. It wasn’t in the music papers. Casting director
Eddie Foy III said something about music because it was about a band. So, I
suspect everyone they saw, some who I know, like Paul Peterson. I bumped into
him in the hallway and Paul Williams, and a friend who I sang with in a folk
kind of thing and he called me and said “tell them we worked together.” When
the casting director came up to my name, ‘what has he done? Circus Boy.
And he is in a band, plays bowling alleys. Does open mike nights.’
Mickey Braddock was my stage name. It wasn’t
like I was coming off another TV show. They were going for four kids who just
jumped off the screen. If I was producing that is what I would have done. Not
“I gotta have a keyboard player…”
They were casting for four characters that were
charismatic and different. And that was an important element. They were doing
an ensemble show. And I think the music aspect was something they would worry
about down the line. Let’s cast the show. And they were going to put us into
rehearsals for a year. ‘Cause it was a TV show, as I have often said, about a
band. It wasn’t a band. And the producers knew that. They had great visions of
what it could be.
As you see on the screen test it was comedy
and acting. We did one little jam. I suspect but don’t know the music was not
at the top of the list of their priorities. It had to be there. And we had to
be comfortable around music. But it was heavily weighted toward the
improvisation. The fact that I had the musical background they saw me.
The first time I remember when the four of us
together as The Monkees was at the wardrobe fitting. And I
remember when I would drive on to the lot past the guard gate, the same guard
was the one I knew from Circus Boy. I had an onset tutor and I
remembered the teacher, Lillian Barkley, and she was still at Screen Gems when
I went there for The Monkees audition. As I said before,
before I got the part,
I remember walking around. I would be there
for other things, saying hi to Lillian, “Boy, I really want to get this one.” I
wasn’t thinking about the money. I’d like to get the job and a check, I told
her ‘put in a good word for me.’ I knew The Monkees were going
to be different. I was coming from a show biz family, and so much was second
nature by then. And I had already done a series. I recall at the middle of the
lot. “Oh hi. This is Mike.’ ‘I’m Micky. Peter, Davy. Nice to meet you.
Great. Congratulations. You guys are The Monkees.”
I’d been through the process. But I didn’t get
enormously invested in the whole thing. I knew it was a pilot. Late November,
1965, I was still going to school and would have taken the week off. I went
down to Hotel Del Coronado and went back to school at Trade Tech. At the time I
was never that comfortable at improv when we did the pilot. We’d only just met
each other. Around the pilot there was a buzz about it. And I was kind of
encouraged to be kind of goofy and improvise and be unusual. My mother said to
me after the pilot.
Q: You had various day and night jobs
around Hollywood. You were embedded in rock ‘n’ roll. You parked cars at the
Red Velvet nightclub on Sunset Blvd. and also played amateur nights clad in a
shiny sharkskin suit.
A: I had worked at Wallichs Music City.
Hollywood and Vine. Bobby Darin came in one day. I had already recorded my
first single. “Don’t Do It” before The Monkees, with members of the
soon to be known Wrecking Crew. Glen Campbell, Earl Palmer, Joe Osborn and a
keyboard player. I didn’t know who they were. I became friends with Glen
Campbell during The Monkees. At one point, Glen said to me “I
don’t know if you remember but I was on your first session.” “What!”
“I also used to frequent a place called the
Omnibus, a coffee house. It was in the early sixties. This was probably the
closest thing to a cusp between the beatniks and the hippie area. It was on
Cahuenga or Las Palmas. I remember clearly it was my first foray into post
teenage life and the adult world. I’m going to Valley Junior College, age 18 or
19, well after Circus Boy, no drinking, and only coffee. This
was bikers, and beatniks. No paisley, no bell bottoms, people in black. And
still snapping their fingers and reading poetry.
Q: History has shown us the group had chemistry
and a magical outfit.
A: It obviously clicked and it had
chemistry. It’s almost the absence of any conflict that probably was, you know,
more to the point. Even in the pilot and early episodes it was very clear to us
immediately that when we got a script with scenes who was the right person to
say that line. And we would often say, ‘that is a line for Peter, not Davy.’ On
some re-writes we would just swap lines.
The characterizations were like The Marx
Brothers. And going back to the audition process, I heard they had gone to the
Lovin’ Spoonful. Similar in many ways in terms of personalities as the Beatles
even. Things that happen in a group who are like-minded and have the same taste
in music. And they have the same dynamic which is wonderful for music for
recording.
The singularity of musical vision would never
work on television in terms of comedy and the drama like the Marx Brothers if
all of them were like Groucho and all of them were doing Groucho. Like
with Friends, if all the girls were Lisa Kudrow, it doesn’t work.
You have to have the distinction. I did the pilot and went home.
I remember hanging out at Mike’s place. He had
an apartment. I remember hanging out with Peter waiting to hear from my agent.
Mike had a drum kit in his apartment. He gave me a drum lesson before the
series started. Shot in November, 1965, and we were getting ready for the TV up
fronts in New York. January, 1966. It moved fast. But for the two months we
were hanging out, I was going to school. And the series got picked up. That is
when I quit school.
Q: There were people considered and given
drum kits like Rick Steininger, a roommate of Denny Doherty.
A: Partially because there were some
lingering concerns about me being drafted. I remember them asking my agent
about the draft, who knows if that was an issue or not. It could have easily
been.
Q: Your distinct drum style. Your drum kit
set up was different. You had an innate sense of rhythm.
A: In the pilot I didn’t know I was going
to be the drummer. I remember being told by Bob or Bert or both, you are the
drummer. (laughs). They had a lot of guitar players. Looking back, of course,
the idea was to have Davy to be the front man, Mike on guitar. “OK. When do I
start?” I remember immediately starting drum lessons. Later on, I watched Earl
Palmer and picked up tips from him. But the first teacher I had was right down
off of Gower at his studio or maybe on the lot. I sat down at the traps. The kit
was set up in a traditional way.
Q: You had Perthes disease which affected
your hip joint and right leg, which was weaker, and played a part in you
adapting an unorthodox drum set up which mixed equipment as right-handed and
left-footed.
A: I started playing and because of my
right leg which still gives me trouble to this day, it got very sore, and
arthritis kind of thing very quickly. I got sore as a kid and teenager playing
sports. And I started playing and he said switch it around and play from
scratch. “Your left leg is the strongest one.” “I’m right-handed.” “Turn the
bass drum over there, snare here.” And because of that switch using my left
foot, right foot would have been awkward, but now your right leg has to play
behind. That was interesting. He switched the hi-hat and the bass. The hit-hat
was on my right leg which doesn’t do as nearly as much.
That meant that now I’m playing open. I got a
drum pad, a practice pad at home and worked my ass off. I drove up to San Jose
and sat there in the passenger’s seat playing the drum pad. I wanted to look
good and play good. Preparation. In the beginning there was no thought of
recording. That was way down the road. This was all about getting ready for the
show and the series.
Early on when they pulled the trigger on the
series, there are very early press releases and photos where I am Mickey
Braddock on them. Right at the last moment it might have been one of those
situations where I had to make up my mind on the last name. I don’t remember
why. Maybe my mom said something. Because it was confusing as well as driver’s
license and ID’s and stuff. At some point I said “Micky Dolenz.”
Q You used your own name in the series.
A: That must have been Bob and Bert. I
often wonder what would have happened to us in many ways and what would have
happened to the whole brand and the marketing, plus us as individuals if we
would have had character names. That is probably the biggest unknown question
about The Monkees. Would it have been as successful? More
successful? Less successful? If after The Monkees would we
have been able to move on and do other things as actors and entertainers having
played the part.
I have the pilot script where we have names
like Biff, Rick, Wendell. Davy is the only one. And the whole thing initially
about not playing the instruments been as big a deal with the fans or we not
playing as deeply and as passionately as them? We will never know…
Look at Friends. The fans are very
passionate and the show was very successful and the actors were able to move
on. But then you look at someone like Leonard Nimoy and it wouldn’t have
mattered. He’s still Mr. Spock. Fine actor.
I don’t know who made the decision about
names, corporate or Bob or Bert. I do know the pilot almost didn’t sell. I
heard after the fact. All I know and what I’ve heard was that the pilot did not
do well. And the feedback was it wasn’t gonna work. That’s when they went back
in took out the manager of the record shop and added our screen tests. Those
are the two main things.
I always felt NBC was scared of it from the
very beginning. I’m sure they were after the pilot got picked up. And then
things like the Monkeemobile and the musical equipment started happening in
January, 1966. That’s when the wheels really started turning. The endorsements.
Cars, Pontiacs.
Q: I seem to remember there was a moment
when you really knew The Monkees had made a big impression on
the public. You were at the newly opened Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks, California,
in the mall and recognized.
A: That was Christmas of 1966. Two months after
the show was on the air. That was the first time I noticed and realized ‘Holy
shit! Something is going on here.’ I was only at the studio and at home. The
show was just on the air. I had no idea what was happening. There was a big
“Last Train to Clarksville” promotion done in conjunction with local radio
station KHJ. I remember the train. We were flown in by helicopters. Landed on
the beach. All these plants. 50 girls who were hired that were contest winners
and on the train.
Some idiot (laughs) said “You guys are gonna
have to play on the way back.” Because we had been practicing. But, of
course, how do you set up a band in a train? When the train starts and the
cymbals are flying all over the place and crazy amps. It must have been God
awful. We played “Clarksville” and two other songs. Maybe a couple of Mike’s
tunes.
Q: Your group’s first public appearance.
A: I guess so. No one figured out that the
train rocked back and forth. How would they have even gotten power to the amps?
Q: They were showing one of the pilot
episodes in a box car. When was the first time you heard the group on the
radio?
A: That I do remember, because I had never
heard myself on the radio. I was living on with Davy on Easton off of Benedict
Canyon and he and I and John London rented a house after I moved out from an
apartment in the San Fernando Valley. I had another apartment, an upgrade from
the one before I got the show. Coldwater and Riverside. That is where I was
when I even got the pilot. I moved to this house with Davy when the series went
and John London, who was Mike’s stand-in and friend. Davy and I were coming back
from the set and it had been announced on KHJ that it would be Monkees
Day or something like that. So, we were listening. And it started
playing as we pulled up to the house. We looked at each other “Wow!”
We were at Bert Schneider’s house when we saw
the actual series debut. And I believe Natalie Wood was there. I think he was
dating her at the time if I’m not mistaken. I remember Natalie Wood because she
was hot and I always remember liking her and when I walked in and there was
Natalie Wood. Bob Rafelson and his wife Toby were there. I don’t think I
brought anybody. Every few weeks I would watch an episode.
Q: I always dug that The Monkees gave
guest spots to comedians and actors who were stars of the forties and fifties.
A: I remember Jerry Colonna, Stan Freberg,
Hans Conried and Lon Chaney Jr. I remember Jerry Lewis coming down on the set
as a director. I was a huge Jerry Lewis fan. The episodes were shot back to
back. And so, it was a continuous episode from my point of view. We would
typically start on a Monday and finish on a Wednesday. Start on a Thursday and
finish on a Monday. Start on a Tuesday and finish on a Friday. It was all one
episode…
Q: The enduring influence and impact of the
Monkees. Rick Rubin and Steven Van Zandt have touted your group to me
A: I’ve often thought the Monkees often hit
pop music. Dr. Timothy Leary said in that book, Politics of Ecstasy,
“The Monkees brought long hair into the living room.” And I think that may be
the legacy. It made it OK to be a hippie, have long hair, and wear bell
bottoms. It did not mean you were a criminal, a dope smoking fiend commie
pervert. That’s what happened. A kid says, “Hey mom, the Monkees have long hair
and wear paisley bell bottoms.”
You know, let’s not forget that The
Monkees were a TV show about a band. An imaginary band that lived
in this beach house and had these imaginary adventures. It was theater. It was
probably the closest thing to musical theater in television. It was about this
band that wanted to be famous, wanted to be the Beatles, and it represented in
that sense all those garage bands around the country and the world.
On The Monkees show, the
Monkees were never famous, it was all about the struggle for success that made
it so endearing I think to the public, anyway.
In fact, one of the most important things, I
think The Monkees’ show contributed to the culture was the
idea that you could have longhair and wear bell bottoms and you weren’t
committing crimes against nature. At the time, the only time you saw people
with longhair on television they were being arrested or treated as second class
citizens.
I remember Ringo once, years later, telling me
how the music business has changed so much. ‘You know, all you had to do in the
old days was show up with your drums and you were in the band.’ (laughs). And,
that’s true.
Monkee MICKY
DOLENZ, of the 60s group The Monkees (which Rewind TV in the U.K. is
running right now) turns 80 on Saturday, March 8th.
Dolenz
continues to tour and appeared in Las Vegas last week. He has also just
released a new album, MICKY DOLENZ LIVE AT THE TROUBADOUR.
March 7, 2025 is the birthday of
singer/songwriter Arthur Lee. Love’s co-founder has a sonic legacy that
continues.
High Moon Records has slated for 2025 release
a compilation of estate on this album sourced from Arthur’s trove of tapes, recorded
during the last fifteen years of his life, most of these songs are being heard
here for the first time ever.
Arthur asked his wife Diane Lee to issue
them after his death. Having been hospitalized for several months, Lee realized
he was losing his fight with Leukemia, and asked Diane to oversee the release
of a final record of his unreleased songs. Although many of the tracks were in
various stages of completion, Lee left some specific musical notes to execute
his vision.
Guitarist Johnny Echols is the co-founder
of Love, although revisionist history, print and digital documentation has, on
occasion, displayed the group as the sole brainchild of Arthur Lee.
In 2012 and 2017, I interviewed Johnny Echols
about Arthur Lee and Love, and Johnny’s memories of Jimi Hendrix and Love’s
epic Forever Changes.
Portions first appeared in my books Turn Up the Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll in Los
Angeles 1956-1972 and 1967 A Complete
Rock History of the Summer of Love.
HK: How did the concept of Forever Changes begin?
JE: We started with kind of an idea after
hearing the Beatles’ Sgt. Peppers.
And we decided that we wanted to do something that had horns and strings and we
knew from the very start how this album was going to be. And what we were going
to do and that we were going to try to make this what we would consider our
magnum opus. This was gonna be the thing that defined us. And it was either we
were gonna take off and just go all the way or something was gonna have to
happen. We were going to really leave the three minute pop song format. We were
getting bored of the three minute rock tune and wanted to push it. We knew with
Sgt Pepper’s there was a whole new
sonic thing going on. Absolutely.
The material and concepts of an outline of
it were written before we went into the studio. Arthur was not very much of a
guitar player. He could play a few chords and basically would sing the songs to
me and basically play the outline of them and then I would get together with
Kenny mostly and we would work out some structure for the song. Bryan had a way,
kind of a counter point that he would do with his finger picking that would
work against what we were playing. We would always have the rehearsals with
Kenny and me first and then Michael Stuart. We would rehearse with acoustical
instruments, or sometimes at a friend of ours who had a house, Joe Clark. He
lived in the Valley and we’d go to his place. Sometimes we would rehearse in
the daytime at the Whisky. But mostly at one of our houses.
My role with Arthur and Bryan was basically
an ombudsman to kind of keep these two personalities happening.
So, I knew that from the very start to keep them focused, because they would have been at loggerheads all the time. Because they liked
the same chicks, if you listen to some of the songs. That is rock ‘n’ roll.
That’s tight, of course, but there was always that strong tension between the
two of them and I was always stuck there in the middle kind of keeping the
peace but also drawing the best out of them that I could. Because otherwise,
you know, Bryan was very much a show tune kind of guy and I knew we could not
release show tunes so we had to do a lot of work on his songs to meld then into
something that was acceptable to an audience that we were developing.
HK: Lyrically, Arthur Lee was breaking new
ground.
JE: Lyrically, Arthur was writing some
absolutely phenomenal lyrics. I was knocked on my ass. Hell yes it did! Because
I am expecting the pedestrian the same old stuff that I’d heard before. Then I
started reading these lyrics and looking at them. And this isn’t the Arthur that I know.
A dude that I’d fought with and wrestled around the ground with. This was a
poet. And I am listening to this poetry and it was absolutely shocking. Because
it just came out of no fuckin’ where and still to this day, and it was only for
this brief period of time that it was just profound. After that it was, you
know, good and but it was not extraordinary.
The writing for that brief moment of time
was just extraordinary. And I don’t understand it. I’ve asked him over and over
and he did not understand. Because he did not realize for ‘Everyone who thinks
that life is just a game. Do you like the part you’re playing?’ He did not
realize how fuckin’ profound that was. He didn’t know.
HK: It’s an L.A. album with regional
influences that reach globally.
JE:Forever Changes could only happen in the
city of L.A. And could only happen at that particular point in time. And only
in L.A. Because you did have that cosmopolitan freedom, you know, that you
didn’t have people necessarily put into little categories and boxes. You were
able to go anywhere.
In the L.A. area you could be able to
hear blues one night and go hear rock and go hear experimental or avant garde
jazz, or whatever. So, you were right in the same area you are exposed to all
these different cultures. And also, on the radio. If you listened to the radio
then, the DJ’s were playing Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, they were
playing Dick Dale and Frank Sinatra. All on the same radio station. So, you
were exposed to whole different genres.
HK:
Why does Forever Changes continue to
be lauded and reissued?
JE: My theory on why this album is so
popular and in the top ten of all time ...
The magic of the record is that it is
unexpected. It just came all of a sudden there is the atom bomb. You are
dealing with regular TNT explosions and all of a sudden, you’ve got an atomic
bomb. It just pushed the envelope so far outside of the mainstream that it took
a while. Now if it had been released in the last few years, it would have done a
whole, whole lot better commercially ‘cause people are ready for that. But back
then people were just kind of stunned. All of a sudden you go from here to
there and then stunning Arthur lyrics. Everything was just different. The way
the horns were done. The way the jazz was blended in with folk music, was
blended in with kind of show tunes and rock ‘n’ roll.
It was all put together. But also, because
the times we were living in. We had civil rights movement, we had Vietnam war,
all of this turmoil and out if the turmoil there’s a rose landed in all of this
shit. There are assassinations. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis. Robert F.
Kennedy in Los Angeles on Wilshire Boulevard. So, there we got a rose coming
out of all this shit and it is blooming. And it is kind of permeating the air
with sweetness.
If you listen to ‘A House Is Not a Motel,’
I knew what those words were, having been there then when Arthur was with a
Vietnam veteran who came back and he was at the Wherehouse in San Francisco,
when we were playing with Janis Joplin and he sat down with us and started telling
us about ‘how when blood mixes with mud it turns gray.’ And how these kids were
dying in the fields and nobody can get to them. And they’re calling out their
mother’s name or calling out God’s name or someone’s name. So, you hear ‘I hear
you calling out my name.’ These kids are calling out to somebody. Anyway, he
tells us all of this and Arthur listening to it and when we go back and put the
song together, we want the music to reflect what somebody felt when they were
out in that field by themselves. You know, listening to bombs explode around
them and all of the stuff that is happening.
From Timmy ...
David Johansen of The New York Dolls
died Friday, February 28th, at the age of 75. The singer-songwriter and last
surviving member of the pioneering glam-rock outfit — who also had a
second career as lounge lizard Buster Poindexter and a side hustle as a character actor — had been battling cancer and a brain tumour. His family issued the following statement:
“David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah,
in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers. After a decade of
profoundly compromised health he died of natural causes at the age of
75. David and his family were deeply moved by the outpouring of love and
support they’ve experienced recently as the result of having gone
public with their challenges. He was thankful that he had a chance to be
in touch with so many friends and family before he passed. He knew he
was ecstatically loved. There will be several events celebrating
David’s life and artistry, details to follow.”
Johansen’s condition was publicly revealed just a few weeks ago via Sweet Relief,
who were collecting funds to pay for his care. I bought one of the
T-shirts pictured below. It just arrived; I wore it earlier this week.
I’ll be wearing it again today while I listen to Johansen’s albums and
reminisce about being right down front at Stubb’s when the reconstituted Dolls played SXSW about 20 years ago. What a great show. At that point, Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain were the last men standing; guitarist Johnny Thunders, drummer Jerry Nolan (and before him, Billy Murcia) and bassist Arthur Kane were already gone. Syl died in 2021; now David’s rejoined the band for good. We shall not see their like again.
Born in Staten Island, New York on January 9, 1950, Johansen’s joined
his first band, the Vagabond Ministries, as a teenager. But it was as
singer with proto-punk provocateurs the New York Dolls that he made his
name.
He recorded two albums with the Dolls, 1973’s self-titled debut and 1974’s Too Much Too Soon. While neither were commercial hits, both went on to influence bands and artists such as the Sex Pistols, Guns N’ Roses and The Smiths, whose singer Morrissey was an ardent fan.
After
the Dolls split in 1976, Johansen embarked on a solo career, releasing a
series of solo albums between 1978 and 1984. But his biggest success
came in the late 80s via his Buster Poindexter alter ego, which saw him
performing blues and jazz covers in the guise of a bequiffed lounge
singer. He also appeared in several movies, including 1988’s Scrooged (playing The Ghost Of Christmas Past alongside Bill Murray) and 1992’s sci-fi bomb Freejack, the latter also featuring Mick Jagger.
Johansen
relaunched the New York Dolls in 2004 with guitarist Sylvain Sylvain
and bassist Arthur Kane (former guitarist Johnny Thunders and drummer
Jerry Nolan had died several years earlier). This version of the band
released three albums between 2004 and 2011. In 2022, Johansen was the
subject of an acclaimed concert film and documentary, Personality Crisis: For One Night Only, directed by Marin Scorsese.
kk ...
Thanks For Reaching Out To Jimbo About New Song "THE MUSIC REMEMBERS."
Tell Him He Should Check Out My FACEBOOK Group "I LOVE THE PLATTERS."
Everyday Around 7 AM (ET), I Start The Day With Five Platters Songs - Lots Of Album Cuts.
After That, Birthdays + Anniversarys + Deaths + Original Recording Dates (Thanks Ron Smith)
After You, Maybe He Can Post The New Song On My Group. He Can Even Post His Music If He Wants To.
I Have To Disagree With His Statement Regarding The Only Way To Find Out About The Original Platters Is Through "Tribute Groups" ...
Checking Out My Group A Few Times A Week Is Another Way To Do It.
Kent --
Don't Forget to Mention Zola Taylor Was Born on March 17, 1938 (ST. PATRICKS DAY)
Part #2 --
My Idea For A New Series ...
We All Complain About Why Aren't They In The ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME ...
I
Like What You Did With Joe Cocker ... Name & Date Of First Recording, Date When First Eligible For Induction Into R&R HALL OF FAME.
It Really Hits Home When You Print All The Facts.
You Can Start With Johnny Maestro + Connie Francis + Neil Sedaka ...
Maybe A Few Times A Month.
Thanks Again For Reaching Out To Jimbo. Now That We Know The Song Exists. I Want To Hear It.
FB
I'm anxious to hear it, too ... but I understand his concerns regarding leaking it now before a recording has even been done ... probably best to keep it close to the vest on this one.
We could EASILY do a weekly feature on all the deserving artists who have thus far been ignored by The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame ...
Our "Deserving And Denied" list has been floating around for a couple of decades already!
Biggest thing is finding the time to put it all together ... cause one the new nominees have been announced, all of the focus stays on them.
But it's not a bad idea for an on-going feature. Will have to give that some more thought. (kk)
Heart has announced that they will be going right back out on the road again after they wrap up their current Royal Flush Tour.
Adding another month of dates to their schedule, Ann and Nancy Wilson and the band have revamped the show into "An Evening With Heart" and will be performing a two set program with no warm-up act, kicking things off again at the end of May.
Dates announced thus far include:
May 31st – Atlantic City, NJ – Hard Rock – Mark G Etess Arena
June 1st – Vienna, VA – Wolf Trap
June 3rd – Lexington, KY – Rupp Arena
June 4th – Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre
June 6th – Highland Park, IL – Ravinia Festival
June 7th – Hinckley, MN – Grand Casino Hinckley Amphitheater
June 10th – Evansville, IN – Ford Center
June 12th – St. Louis, MO – The Fabulous Fox
June 14th – Grand Prairie, TX – Texas Trust CU Theatre
June 15th – Cedar Park, TX – H-E-B Center at Cedar Park
June 17th – Sugar Land, TX – Smart Financial Centre
June 18th – Baton Rouge, LA – Raising Cane’s River Center
June 20th – Birmingham, AL – Legacy Arena at BJCC
June 22nd – North Charleston, SC – North Charleston Coliseum
June 24th – Jacksonville, FL – VuStar Veterans Memorial Arena
June 25th – Estero, FL – Hertz Arena
June 27th – Orland, FL – Kia Center
June 28th – Hollywood, FL – Hard Rock Live
And a closing smile ...
FH Reader Clark Besch suggests that perhaps after Trump's Address to Congress the other night, The 2000 Year Old Man may still be alive and well ...
And drawing Social Security!!!
60 YEARS AGO TODAY:
3/7/65 – A female fan at The Rolling Stones’ show at The
Palace Theatre in Manchester, England, falls from the circle where the group
was playing.Fortunately, the rest of
the audience below her broke her fall … and she only broke a couple of
teeth.(Hey, it’s Britain … who'll
even notice?!?!)
