REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Davy Jones dies at 66

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Sunday, March 4, 2012 19:22
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Thursday, March 1, 2012 8:11 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Of a heart attack. What surprises me is how all the accolates, reminiscenses, etc., never mention that The Monkees wasn't a "real" band...they eventually became one, but they were CREATED, they didn't "get together", they were a television creation! They were ACTORS (who could sing) hired for a TV show.

Ah, I finally found one:
Quote:

The Monkees had been created to cash in on the Beatles' popularity, and although they never came close to achieving the critical stature of their counterparts, they did carve out a permanent niche in music as what Rolling Stone's Encyclopedia of Rock 'n' Roll has called "the first and perhaps the best of the '60s and '70s prefabricated pop groups."

"Of the four actors they hired, Davy Jones was by far the most accomplished as a singer and as a performer. He was really the perfect choice," said Rich Podolsky, author of a biography of Don Kirshner, who was "The Monkees" TV show's musical director.

Hundreds of musician-actors turned out for the auditions, but the young men who became the Monkees had no idea what ultimately awaited them.

"They had an ad in the newspaper," Jones recalled on NBC's "Today Show" last year, "and then we all showed up."

When they put him together with Tork, Dolenz and Nesmith, the chemistry was obvious.

"That's it," he recalled everyone around him saying: "Magic."

It was a shrewd case of cross-platform promotion. As David Bianculli noted in his "Dictionary of Teleliteracy," ''The show's self-contained music videos, clear forerunners of MTV, propelled the group's first seven singles to enviable positions of the pop charts: three number ones, two number twos, two number threes."

The Monkees would soon come under fire from music critics, however, when it was learned that session musicians — and not the group's members — had played the instruments on their recordings. They were derided as the "Prefab Four," an insulting comparison to the Beatles' nickname, the "Fab Four."

In reality, Jones could play the drums and guitar. Although Dolenz, the group's drummer on the show, only learned to play that instrument after he joined the Monkees, he also could play guitar.

Nesmith played guitar and wrote numerous songs, both for the Monkees and others. Tork, who played bass and keyboards on the TV show, was a multi-instrumentalist.

The group eventually prevailed over the show's producers, including Kirshner, and began to play their own instruments. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jbAIhTMYMY2YLQgQUEJn
MR29yMSA?docId=d692faf126b3445a9d2dba2225d14d8a

I remmber sneering at the idea when they began, tho' later on I enjoyed some of their songs. Nesmith was actually my favorite, as he was a true musician prior to the TV "fake".

I'm sad to see yet another of my "contemporaries" bite the dust...just caught him recently on Colbert. They're dropping like flies around me! Always sad to see someone we grew up with die. Or anyone, of course, but we tend to feel a closer link to those icons we grew up with.

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Thursday, March 1, 2012 8:27 AM

HERO


He was found in a locker...

H

"Hero. I have come to respect you." "I am forced to agree with Hero here."- Chrisisall, 2009.
"I agree with Hero." Niki2, 2011.

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Thursday, March 1, 2012 10:47 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


Eh, they talked about it over here/

Quote:

The Monkees star Davy Jones dead at 66
March 1, 2012........

Jones was a former jockey-turned-actor who soared to fame in 1965 when he joined The Monkees and they embarked on an adventure that included a wildly popular US television show. Jones sang lead vocals on songs like I Wanna Be Free and Daydream Believer.

The band was assembled as an American version of the Beatles, with its personnel designed to be the instant stars of an American TV series seeking to evoke the "British invasion" of the US music charts.

Auditions for The Monkees attracted about 500 applicants. Jones - who was born December 30, 1945, in Manchester, England - had stylishly long hair and a British accent that helped with his selection. He would go on to achieve heart-throb status in the US.

Nonetheless, musical ability wasn't paramount in the casting decisions. While Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork had some musical experience, Mickey Dolenz had been a child actor, as had Jones.

In August 1966, the Beatles performed in San Francisco, their last touring appearance for a paying audience. The same month, the Monkees released their first album, introducing the world to the group that would star in the NBC series when it premiered in September 1966.

Despite being dismissed as the "pre-fab four" by some critics, the first single, Last Train to Clarksville, became a No 1 hit, and the show caught on with audiences, featuring fast-paced, helter-skelter comedy inspired as much by the Marx Brothers as the Beatles.

It was a shrewd case of cross-platform promotion. As David Bianculli noted in his Dictionary of Teleliteracy, "The show's self-contained music videos, clear forerunners of MTV, propelled the group's first seven singles to enviable positions of the pop charts: three number ones, two number twos, two number threes."

And though initially the Monkees weren't allowed to play their own instruments, they were supported by enviable talent: Carole King and Gerry Goffin wrote Pleasant Valley Sunday, and Neil Diamond penned I'm a Believer.

Musicians who played on their records included Billy Preston (who later played with the Beatles), Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, Ry Cooder and Neil Young.

After two seasons, the TV series had flared out and was cancelled. But the Monkeys kept recording and performing and remained a nostalgia act for decades.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/the-monkees-star-davy-jon
es-dead-at-66-20120301-1u40z.html#ixzz1nts09mm0



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Thursday, March 1, 2012 10:51 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


I loved the show. Used to watch it on rerun and it was hysterically funny and cheeky - well I thought so. Davey was so cute too.

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Thursday, March 1, 2012 10:56 AM

STORYMARK


It was mentioned when I heard about his death. Kinda unimportant anyway, I feel. HOW he got the job that made him famous seems lees important to me than what he did with it.

"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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Thursday, March 1, 2012 11:47 AM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht


They still play reruns on one of our local channels, its mildly cute, though if I had grown up with it I know I would love it, I only first saw it recently, since that local channel is a new one, but I do like their Clarksville song.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Thursday, March 1, 2012 12:59 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Saw them play live once. Well, 3 out of 4 of them were there.

They sounded real enough to me. Good show, as I recall.


Weird Al Yankovic opened up for them. He was pretty good too.


" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

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Thursday, March 1, 2012 3:55 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


Quote:

Originally posted by AURaptor:


Weird Al Yankovic opened up for them. He was pretty good too.



Alberquerque!!

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Thursday, March 1, 2012 5:00 PM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important


Hello,

Al is a virtuoso performer often overlooked as a 'real' artist because he chooses to make comedy part of his art.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

"In every war, the state enacts a tax of freedom upon the citizenry. The unspoken promise is that the tax shall be revoked at war's end. Endless war holds no such promise. Hence, Eternal War is Eternal Slavery." --Admiral Robert J. Henner


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Thursday, March 1, 2012 7:05 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Quote:

Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
Quote:

Originally posted by AURaptor:


Weird Al Yankovic opened up for them. He was pretty good too.



Alberquerque!!



Alas, it was prior to that particular song's release.


" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

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Thursday, March 1, 2012 7:56 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


My son is a Weird Al Fan and loves that song.

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Friday, March 2, 2012 6:57 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Raptor, they did BECOME real and for that they deserve credit. I guess it means something to me because of their beginnings...at the time it was decried as "art" (if you could call it that) immitating life. But they DID eventually demand to play their own instruments, I saw the show and it was funny, and I liked some of their songs. So in the end they were real musicians and it was a real band. I just remember all the hue and cry at the time and was kinda pissed it was never mentioned, only accolades for Jones, etc. Just my personal peeve.

That aside, he and they deserve credit for what they did with their opportunity. I guess I shouldn't be so surprised he died, actually...when we saw him on Colbert, Choey and I agreed we'd never have recognized him. We all get old...some of us older than others, obviously...



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Sunday, March 4, 2012 7:22 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht


Weird Al is fun, when I was a little girl my brother borrowed a CD from our cousins, huge fans, and I decided I liked him too.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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