Davy Jones passes away

The episode where Peter Tork unwittingly sells his soul to the devil (and played “I Wanna Be Free” on the harp) is perhaps the greatest episode in the series.

A real shame.
I loved the tv series when it was on our little b&w tv back in the 60s.
I’ll go out a limb here and admit I also enjoyed their movie, Head, a lot as well…

I studied social psychology in grad school, and my advisor was a big name in the field of interpersonal relationships. She talked about stuff like this, how her great-aunt’s death barely affected her at all because she’d had almost no contact with that relative, while her cat dying really messed her up for a while because of the interactions in her life and how the disruption to those interactions basically ‘messes with your head’ (roughly - it’s about expected patterns in your life and reinforcement through frequency, etc.). She said you could find yourself more torn up by the loss of an enemy than a distant but benign relative, through similar means.

It’s a little different here, but you essentially did have more frequent and meaningful “interactions” with this idol from your youth than you did with the BF’s nephew, and add to that the realization that a creative force in this world who you found joy in, is now gone? That can be very painful in its own way.

I was more of a Micky fan - I came in with the reunion wave of popularity in the late '80s, due to my age - but loved the band’s music then and found moments of joy in it over the years.

I mostly just posted to share a little incident from yesterday. On my way to the train station after work, riding my workplace’s shuttle bus, the guy in the seat behind me was talking business on his cell phone. There was a shift in the conversation, probably by the person on the other end, as I heard the guy behind me say something about how “Daydream Believer” was such a great song. Then he sung the chorus into his phone - not just one line, but the whole chorus. Kind of surreal that some 50-something guy would tenderly serenade his cell phone, caller, and fellow employees like that, but also a nice testament to how sometimes music can just touch your heart in a lasting way.

I can understand that. I shed some tears for Davy. And I’m not a crying man, but so help me, I cried when George Harrison died back in 2001. It’s the loss of another part of my childhood, carefree, happier times. When Ringo or Paul goes, or Peter, Mike, or Micky, it’ll feel like more of the same, another piece of my childhood passing away.

I’ll always think of Davy dancing in his fruity 60s clothes and grabbing both his man boobs. :smiley:

I hear ya. My ex was big into things like Jerry Vale, Mantovani and other elevator music crap (I still can’t figure out why I married her). She had a garage sale and I lost Arthur Brown, three Hendrix albums, The Animals, The Kinks, Steppenwolf, Big Brother, Zappa, The Doors, the Beatles White Album, Buffalo Springfield, Cream, John Mayall, and many other LPs of the 60s rock scene. Seriously pissed? Oh HELL yeah. That was nearly 40 years ago and I’m still pissed.

He won a Tony nomination at age 16 for his portrayal of Artful Dodger in the Broadway production of Oliver!

When I heard the news, I flashed back to my 5th grade classroom and all the girls that had a crush on Davy. Wow, that show was such a huge part of our lives.

I always like Mike the best, but Davy had by far the best voice. “Daydream Believer” and “Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow” are wonderful performances.

i want to be free is my top monkee song.

peter is my favourite monkee. i loved, loved, loved, the harp episode. finally a peter spotlight episode.

Bobby Sherman was on the Monkees once, if anyone didn’t know.

[QUOTE=TBG]
Bobby Sherman was on the Monkees once, if anyone didn’t know.

[/quote]

And Jones frequently performed with Cassidy on an oldies tour in the last few years. (I don’t know how much is nature v. nurture v. procedures, but David Cassidy has aged way better than most of his contemporaries.)

Almost as unlikely as Jimi Hendrix being the opening act on a Monkees tour…

I give you Davy Jones (vocals) & Neil Young (guitar).

OK, time to write another verse for Rock N Roll Heaven. Anyone want to try it? Alan O’Day, are you available?

CHORUS:

If you believe in forever,
Then life is just a one-night stand.
If there’s a rock and roll heaven,
Well, you know they’ve got a hell of a band.

I use to have to fight my sister for the TV set. She wanted to watch the Monkeys and I wanted to watch Gilligan’s Island. If I lost, I watched it in hopes of seeing their car.

This reminds me of an episode of Star Trek NG where Doctor Crusher is caught in an ever collapsing universe. Another piece of my universe is gone.

Psst … The Righteous Brothers did “Rock and Roll Heaven.” Alan O’Day did “Undercover Angel.”

Either way, Davy deserves a mention in the song. Best I could do in a few minutes:

George said, Here comes the sun,
And John wanted us all to imagine.
Karen sang her songs as clear as a mountain stream.
Sleepy Jean woke up because
Davy believed in daydreams.
They’ve gone to another place
To sing and play, it seems.

Not bad.

Is that Christine Baranski? Yeah, she’d be about 16, but that’s not unheard of and that personality and those teeth…

Or unless she’s dropped a few years from her age, which she wouldn’t be the first or in the first thousandth to do. Does kind of look like her.
Trivia from Dean Martin’s daughter Deana: Davy was her father’s handpicked escort for her before the Monkees became big. Dean knew him because Davy was signed to a company Dean was involved with, and the reason he chose him for Deana was because he was cute, charming, non-threatening, and, of course, gay, all things that recommended him to an Italian father who wants his little girl to have a good time but remain chaste. (I don’t know if this was before or after Deana appeared on the series.)

In fact, of course, Davy wasn’t remotely gay, but the fact he was English and small and in musical theatre combined with whatever else to give Dean that impression. He was a bit embarrassed when he found out, but by that time Davy and Deana had already decided to just be friends (no real chemistry) so no harm no foul, and she did enjoy hanging with him.

With the innertubes and high school yearbooks it has grown harder to do that.

Pssst…Alan O’Day WROTE the song (OK, co-wrote, with Stevenson). I did the copyright lead sheet on it for Alan before the Righteous Bros even heard of it.

And thanks for the new verse. BTW, Alan has often added verses over the years (the original song was written ca. 1974), and if they were all strung together…well, you’d have one strung out musician.

Did the 5’10" Christine Baranski also grow a half foot in college? All of Davy’s girls had to be cast from the pool of shortest actresses in town. She doesn’t qualify.

The girl was a dancer and choreographer named Anita Mann. She’s also five years older than Baranski.