The Washington Post is reporting that Peter Tork, bassist and occasional lead singer of The Monkees, has died at the age of 77. Though no cause of death has been given, he had been diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma a few years ago.
Pre-fab group or not, I always kind of liked The Monkees. Sorry to see this news.
RIP Peter; you done good.
He was my favourite Monkee. As a child, I could identify with his childlike character.
The older I get, the older everyone else gets. I mean, it’s obvious and all but it’s still sad that all the people who were famous when I was a kid are dying off. Sad and a bit scary.
Hope you got a seat on that last train to Clarksville, Peter.
RIP Peter, thanks for everything. You brought a lot of joy to this Monkee fan’s life.
My favorite Monkee too. He had beautiful hair.
Davy Jones’s dying in 2012 saddened me, but hearing this feels even more like something’s been cut out of my childhood.
my favourite as well. I agree with miss mapp, he had the best, most pretty hair. a very talented musician.
so sad.
yest. in the cafeteria “I’m a believer” came on and so many people were quietly singing along. it was amusing walking past someone and hearing a low, quiet sing along.
Nooooooo.
I was in college in the 1980s, when the Monkees had their first real revival. At that time, when I had more hair than I do now, a number of my friends pointed out that I looked more than a little like Peter. Even before then, he was always my favorite Monkee.
Me, three on the favorite Monkee opinion. I always enjoyed their music, pre-fabbed or not.
I’m one of those kids who weirdly got obsessed with The Monkees when their show was on in re-runs in the 80s/90s (trust me there’s many of us!) I bought all their albums and read the book that came out at that time and basically missed all of whatever boy band stuff was going on at that time (NKOTB) to be a Monkees girl.
Peter was definitely my fave, and seemed like a swell guy and of course a great musician (Tork and Nesmith were “the musicians” and Jones & Dolenz were “the actors”).
Anyway, sad to see him go, even if he’s not of my generation. I felt he was.
Sad news. I enjoyed the show and loved their music.
I’ve loved the Monkees since the early-mid 1970s I was 6 or 7 when they showed reruns of their show on Saturday mornings. My first music purchase was their debut album at a garage sale.
I rediscovered the Monkees in high school when I bought all their original albums.
As I got older, it was Mike Nesmirj’s stuffthat I liked the most, but Tork’s closing credits theme is one of my favorites.
When Davy died, I wasn’t so affected, because I liked his songs the least and he seemed like a jerk.
Peter I’ll miss.
Bye Pete:(
I watched the show in syndication religiously growing up. I went to see them on one of their revival tours (probably later 80s or early 90s) because it was local, cheap, and I thought it would be something to joke about. And it was amazing - such fun music, good banter between themselves and the crowd, everything a show should be.
I’m sure they used the joke at every concert, but at one point Davey strapped on a guitar and started strumming, and Mike says “I thought the Monkees couldn’t play their own instruments.” Davey replies, “I’m not. This is Peter’s.”
I saw the show first-run when I was little. I guess I liked the music (I know I liked the theme song), but I think I saw it more as a live-action cartoon. As an adult I liked their music as a nostalgic touchstone to childhood. It was fun. But the more I actually listened, the more I realized how subversive a lot of it was. 
And yes, I have the The Monkees DVD boxed sets (in the portable record player-style boxes).
So, it’s neck and neck in the Monkees/Beatles Tontine.
Oh, no! Add me to the Peter-was-my-favorite-Monkee list.
I really got into them when MTV ran a marathon and a documentary about the group. In the breaks between episodes, they’d cut to the then-present day guys, fooling around on a soundstage and providing commentary. I particularly remember the guys playing with a stack of camera filters. Mickey Dolenz held up one that had a symbol like a backwards “k”, and Peter immediately said, “That’s the electrical symbol for resistance.” The other guys looked at him in such surprise as to make me wonder how much of his innocent man-child role on the show was a reflection of his real personality.
RIP, Peter - you will be missed.
I watched a few reruns of the Monkees in the early seventies. I enjoyed the wacky comedy.
I never learned the names well enough to distinguish who was who.
The studio musicians created some wonderful music for them. Last Train to Clarksville and I’m a Believer still hold up well.
RIP Peter
There are enough of them left to scrape together another foursome.
I guess today, I am a Daydream Bereaver.
Anyone remember the Pizza Hut commercial with Ringo Starr talking about how this time it was really going to happen, he was going to get back together with “the other lads.” And at the end, the other lads turned out to be Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz, and Peter Tork?
“Wrong lads!”
I thought that was pretty clever.