I’m pretty excited about this.
In the 80s, I saw two Micky/Peter/Davy shows and about five years ago I saw a Micky/Peter/Mike show. Sadly, I never saw a show with all four of them (only a few very rare opportunities existed within my lifetime, none of them were geographically feasible and a few of the quartet shows that did happen featured Mike as a surprise guest so it wasn’t even possible to make plans for those shows).
Just last month, I saw one of the few recent concerts by Mike Nesmith and the First National Band… and it was awesome.
The tour to promote the most recent Monkees album was only Micky and Peter and I had said at the time (perhaps even on this message board) that, as far as I’m concerned, the Monkees name shouldn’t be used unless there are at least three of them. Even when Micky and Davy toured in the 70s they didn’t use the Monkees name and if any duo could have tried to call themselves The Monkees, it would have been Micky and Davy. Peter Tork is an excellent musician and his presence brings a lot to the live shows but he does so few lead vocals whereas Micky and Davy sang lead vocals on so many of the most popular songs (and there actual does exist an official canon Monkees album that is only Micky and Davy).
So, yeah, the Monkees tour that was only Micky and Peter didn’t qualify as a Monkees tour in my personal estimation. I think it’s a great idea to bill this show as “The Monkees Present:”, it attaches the Monkees brand for commercial effect but at the same time lets you know that these shows will be something different.
The description at the link promises some deep cuts by Mike, songs that “have never been performed live”. That sounds pretty great to me. I also expect the two of them to add to one another’s energy on stage (The Mike solo show I saw last month was amazing but he’s not as playful as Micky is, I think the two of them will bring out the best in one another).
Apparently no hard feelings from Peter.
He just wants to focus on other things after having done a lot of Monkees related work over the past few years.
From what I’ve read, “The Monkees Present” could be a nod to the title of their 1969 album…or more likely, a “sweetener” to boost interest/ticket sales. Their producer Andrew Sandoval has talked about the difficulty in getting venues to book recent “Monkee” gigs with promoters being unsure how big a draw they’ll be.
As far as Peter goes, he does have a new digital album out “Relax Your Mind - Honoring the Music of Lead Belly”, which is surprisingly good.
My understanding was always that Mike Nesmith wanted nothing to do with the Monkees, so this surprises me! Looks like the closest they’ll get to DC is Philly, though.
My sneaking suspicion has always been that he wanted nothing to do with Davy Jones. I know, I know, we love him and we love him even more now that he’s dead but, honestly, there was never any shortage of “Davy Jones is a jerk” stories.
Less than 2 years after Davy Jones died there was a Monkees tour featuring Micky, Peter, and Mike. Then he went on to contribute to the new Monkees album that came out two years ago: He wrote one song for it, did vocals for a few, and even played guitar on songs that he neither wrote nor sang on.
There’s also the fact that, for the other three, doing Monkees work was always their best revenue stream. Mike never had any trouble making money doing other things. Over the years he’d join in once in a while to be a good sport- individual concerts but not committing to a full tour, their 1996 album and the television special that went along with it, some DVD commentary- but he always had other things going on and never felt compelled to make any major commitment.
Unfortunately I will be on vacation when Mike and Mickey play here. Otherwise I’d be going. I always loved Mike, even though his recent autobiography was totally WTF.
My take on Mike’s Monkee-ambivalence is that he looks at his time in the band as a a blip (although a very fortunate blip), in his life.
In his memoir he hardly talks about The Monkees at all. He sees himself as a musician, an entrepreneur, a flawed seeker who just happened to get caught up in a crazy cultural whirlwind back in the 60s. The band made him famous and opened doors for him but he moved on after that. The public will always think of him as a Monkee, but he’s having none of it. I think he does get fulfillment and likes performing in that it brings joy to the audience but he’s not interested in the trappings that go along with being a Monkee.
