Anyone who knows me knows I'm a big Monkees fan. I got sucked into "Monkee Mania" during the mid eighties the minute my cousins turned on a new-again repeat of The Monkees on MTV. Or was it Nickelodeon? It might have been both. Anyways, I don't know if it was their wacky antics that first enticed me, but what really stuck was their music. And for a five-year-old digging on classic pop-rock and whatever my dad would allow me to listen to (which was classic rock, motown, and anything else that was on KFRC, the San Francisco Bay Area's oldies channel at the time,) it may explain why I get into awesome bands way after their heyday.
So when I got the Facebook messages and e-mails and text messages and whatnot about the passing of Davy Jones on the 29th of February, I have to say I didn't know how to feel at first. To be honest, while I was a huge Monkees fan, I was never a big Davy Jones fan. As a kid, my favorites were Mickey Dolenz (the crazy-haired goofball with the silly facial expressions) and Peter Tork (the shy and awkward hippyish one.) When I grew up and began to appreciate the deeper cuts of their songs and having had more experience with other types of music, my favorite was Michael Nesmith. While watching the shows, Davy always got the girl, and that didn't help his case in my eyes. Musically, Davy only played the tambourine and maracas, sang the sappy love songs, and was a part of my least favorite song on "More of the Monkees" entitled "The Day We Fall In Love." That, at the time before his death, were my reasonings for him by least favorite Monkee.
During my teenage years, I had gotten defensive over the years about why I liked the Monkees, even though I was told by several people "they didn't write their own music" or "they didn't play their own instruments". And even though they were said as light jabs, they got under my skin. And to me, Davy Jones represented that bad wrap the Monkees got. I don't know why Micky didn't get the same treatment from me, but it was probably out of bias. Davy got the bad wrap from me as a result, despite the fact he was the vocalist for "Daydream Believer"...
And "Valleri"... which fucking rocks.
And "I Wanna Be Free." The TV version is my favorite version... not the slower album version.
But then I began to remember, one by one, the other Davy Jones songs I had taken for granted in the Monkees catalog that are underrated. There's songs with... I don't know... some meaning behind them.
Like "You And I" off of Instant Replay, talking about the nature of the music (and entertainment) business. "In a year or maybe two, we'll be gone and someone new will take our place. Another song, another voice, another pretty face."
Or talking about groupies in "Star Collector." "She only aims to please young celebrities... It won't take much time to get her off my mind."
Or the many messages in "She Hangs Out," where you have to tell your friend (or girlfriend or acquaintance... it's not clear who 'you' is,) "Dude, your sister is getting around, and I may make a move on her... really soon. In fact, I MAY have slept with her. I AM Davy Jones, after all."
Even his sappy shit rocks... like "I'll Be True To You."
And then, I began to think about the Monkees last tour. I was invited by an old friend to go see it with him and his cousin. I thought about it for a while, saw the price, and passed because Michael Nesmith wasn't a part of the tour. I didn't regret it at first because I never really thought anyone would pass away any time soon. But as I sat at my cubicle, listening to a twenty-five song playlist on Spotify of Monkees songs sang by Davy, I started to regret. I didn't want to see a show that didn't have all four Monkees playing together... and while worrying about that, now I'll never see Davy Jones perform.
I was more worried about seeing them ALL together rather than ever getting to see them perform at all.
I was talking to several friends about this, and while I'm not particularly sad or emotionally hurt from his passing, I'm a little mad at myself that it took him dying to finally fully appreciate him. I guess it's human nature... after someone passes, you begin to see the good things that you miss in that person and reflect about that.
But I can't continue to regret that. I do still have my almost-complete collection of CDs, the movie Head, and hopefully in the future, the TV series. Davy Jones left a legacy of great Monkees songs, and those haven't passed on. Sure, he didn't write the lyrics, or compose the music, but he gave those songs the personality it needed.
There's several articles on the internet and print that are better tributes and memorials of Davy Jones (especially the March 29,2012 issue of Rolling Stone) and I can probably better word this article, but I'm speaking from the heart... and give me a break, it's been over two years (three, if you don't include the stuff I deleted off this post or the stuff still in draft form) since I last wrote a blog article.
Rest in peace, Davy. And thanks for your dance number in "Head." It cheers me up every now and again when I need it. "Daddy's Song" is pretty white, as Frank Zappa eloquently put it, but then again, so is Davy. And Toni Basil's pretty cute... so thank you for THAT as well.
(Note: I have like twenty favorite Davy Jones songs from the Monkees albums and reissues that I could have posted, but I didn't want this post to be even more YouTube heavy than it all ready is.)
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