Dolenz from The Monkees to bring back the 60s hits mixed with the new
By Ken Luchterhand
“Here we come, walking down the street, we get the funniest looks from, everyone we meet.
“Hey, hey we're the Monkees, and people say we monkey around. But we're too busy singing, to put anybody down.”
Anyone remembering those lyrics might have special memories about a wild and crazy bunch known as The Monkees, a television show that aired from 1966 to 1968.
Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork, the four Monkees, made comedy look easy. They came to viewers on black and white television and made our lives quite bland in contrast to their own.
And when they hit the stage, all craziness suddenly went away and everyone was captivated by the songs of a truly talented rock band.
In reality, that zany crew weren’t meant to turn out top-notch records like they did, but were instead were created as a fictional group - actors portraying themselves as a rock band.
Mickey Dolenz, one of the four original Monkees, will be performing at 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20, at Ho-Chunk Gaming – Black River Falls. Tickets are available by calling (800) 657-4621 extension 4060.
The Monkeys hits include “Last Train To Clarksville,” “She,” “Daydream Believer,” “Listen To The Band,” “A Little Bit Of Me, A Little Bit Of You,” “I'm A Believer,” “I Wanna Be Free,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” and “I'm Not Your Stepping Stone.”
Of the four Monkees, three are still alive. Davy Jones unexpectedly died in February 2012.
Looking back on his start as a Monkee, Dolenz didn’t know it would be a huge hit and start his career in music.
“I had already been an actor for 10 years. I had a series when I was a kid called Circus Boy, and so The Monkees was my second series and, of course, it was huge, but I had some success with Circus Boy. It was a network show. So, I was a little prepared for it,” Dolenz said.
The auditions for The Monkees show were extensive, he said. He auditioned for the series in 1965, along with 430 other candidates. Dolenz was cast as the drummer and lead vocalist in the band created for the show.
“You have to be able to sing and play an instrument and act and dance and improvise. But you never know if something is going to be successful. There’s no formulas. If there were, there would never be any flops. So, you don’t know. You just try your best,” Dolenz said.
“You surround yourself with very talented people and we were blessed to have some of the greatest songwriters like Neil Diamond, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, and Boise and Heart, and Harry Nilsson, and, of course, Mike Nesmith who wrote some great songs, and Peter and David,” Dolenz said.
“And then there were great directors, and producers and writers of the television show. Looking back, you can say they made some good choices,” he said.
The Monkees was not a band. The Monkees was a television show about a band - an imaginary band, like Glee, Dolenz said. Glee is an imaginary show about an imaginary Glee club, but they can actually all do it. They can all sing and dance and act and play.
“So, if you realize The Monkees, where it came from and what it was, it was more of a Broadway musical on television, like a Marx Brothers movie or something. So, if you look at it from that point of view and you understand that, everything makes much more sense,” he said.
Since that time, Dolenz has been a television actor, a theater actor, a singer, and a director. If he were to choose one occupation to follow, he couldn’t make that commitment.
“I wouldn’t. I never have looked at it like that,” Dolenz said. “To me it depends on the project. It depends on the material. I much rather be directing a great little film than acting in a lousy TV show. I’d rather be singing a great song than directing a lousy film. I mean, it depends entirely on the project. I just follow my nose and I get interested in a play, a musical, a TV show, a recording, or whatever, and I follow that through. “
Now he performs across the country with The Monkees, himself and Peter Tork, and also on a solo billing.
“With The Monkees show, I have Peter Tork there with me, and we have a lot of visual stuff – a lot of multimedia stuff – which I’m also going to have in my solo show. But it’s slightly different – it’s skewed different in my solo show – it’s more about me and my personal life as an actor and singer,” Dolenz said.
“But as far as the music, I sang the majority of the songs with The Monkees, so I always do those. So if you’re a Monkees fan or a Micky fan, or whatever, you’re going to get all of The Monkees hits because I sang most of them. And then, when I’m not doing Monkee hits, I have found that I can go off and do other stuff- you know – album cuts, or I can even do non-Monkee material as long as I bring the audience along with me,” he said.
“For instance, I do a Chuck Berry tune ‘Johnny Be Good.’ I told the audience before I sing the song, ‘I’m singing this Chuck Berry tune because this was my audition piece for The Monkees. This is the song that got me the gig. And when I do that, the audience goes along with me and they love it.”
He also performs another song, a Beatles song that he was present at the session, the recording sessions in the 60s.
“My sister, Coco, sings with me all the time. She does, for instance, a Nesmith song he wrote for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys called ‘Different Drum,’” he said.
The Monkees have a new hit album, which recently went into the charts, called “Good Times.”
“It’s a wonderful album. It features some unreleased tracks and vocals from the 60s. In fact, there is one of Davy Jones’ vocals from the 60s that was never released written by Neil Diamond and another song that Carol King wrote for us that Peter sings,” Dolenz said.
“The title song is ‘Good Times,’ that Harry Nilsson, my dear friend, wrote for me to sing, that was unreleased. And I do a duet with him, which is really wonderful. And then we have some songs that are written by some wonderful indie rock favorites like Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie and Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, and, you know, all kinds of wonderful writers,” Dolenz said.
CDs will be avail for sale at the concert on Aug. 20.
On a personal note, Dolenz and his daughters own and run a hand-made furniture company, appropriately named “Dolenz and Daughters Fine Furniture Company.”
His oldest daughter, Amy, was an actress for many years, but now is a children’s book illustrator. Georgia, who also is involved in the furniture making, is currently an actress, performing at an improvisational company in Los Angeles called The Ground Links.
Of the hundreds of songs Dolenz has performed, the choice is difficult, but there is one that sticks out more than the rest.
“I love singing ‘Pleasant Valley Sunday,’ a Carole King and Gerry Goffin tune,” Dolenz said. “On this Monkees tour, we’re doing a lot of stuff we never did live before.”
Whether you remember The Monkees from the 1960s or not, he knows that the songs and the music will provide for a great performance.
“If you are coming to my solo show and you like The Monkees music, you will not be disappointed,” Dolenz said.
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