Old Enough to Forget

The Monkees. These guys were my musical heroes. Accept no substitutes. As a kid I had no idea they were a manufactured band, and that the TV show ran for only 2 years between 1966 and 1968 and broadcast 58 episodes. I grew up on reruns in the early '70s and while I loved the show, it was the concert and performance parts of the show that I really loved. The songs were so good, but even back then I found Davy Jones to be a little (ha, because he was short) irritating, and his contributions were limited to the cute songs and playing maracas. Even if he could play four of them at a time ... which admittedly is harder than it looks - so is playing the tambourine but that doesn't mean I have to like it. By 1967 The Monkees were a pretty big deal, and by golly they were busy. Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. was their third album that year, and the second one where the boys were in charge of their musical direction. Often dismissed as inconsequential artists, they had en...

"In the year 2076 radio and rock & roll will be around and some nostalgia freak will be munching on a kelp-burger and playing these songs as golden oldies." This was taken from the back of the album jacket, and they were only out by half a century. This was an album my buddy Andy had, and I didn't get much more than a cursory shrug when I asked him if it was any good. I should probably let you know that as a kid there was no band more important to me than The Monkees. Those early TV shows, particularly when the band performed, made me want to play guitar. I didn't want to wear a toque (or as it was known with Michael Nesmith, "Wool Hat"), but I wanted to play guitar. Those big Gretschs were beautiful. The fly in the ointment was Davy. Even back then I could tell he was there for the little girls, and I found his songs to be mostly annoying. Here we are back in 1976, and the combination of Dolenz and Jones with the songwriting and production chops of Boyc...