Were the Monkees Faking It?

Cafe Society
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Of course. Albert Grossman wanted to capitalize on the folk craze & thought “two beards & a blonde” would work; so he set up auditions. They had hits with some Bob Dylan tunes–which worked out well for everybody, since Grossman also managed Dylan.

PP&M produced some lovely music; I liked them better than, say, the Kingston Trio. Maybe I liked The Holy Modal Rounders best of all–but those weirdos were never destined to be Top 40 hitmakers…

Back in the day, lots of us looked down on commercial success & thought authenticity was everything. I was so much older then; I’m younger than that now.

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Not on this planet, that’s for sure! More’s the pity.

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Mitch Mitchell, drummer of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, liked to describe his brief tour with the Monkees this way.

“When we met the Monkees, we all assumed they were fakes. But we found out that Mike Nesmith was REALLY a very good banjo player, and Peter Tork was REALLY a very good guitarist, and Micky Dolenz was REALLY a very… nice guy.” Davy Jones was the only Monkee that Mitch seemed to regard as an utter wanker.

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Kirshner’s beef was not with the Monkees themselves but with the studio management. He had promised Neal Diamond that the Monkees next single would be his “A little bit me, a little bit you”. The Monkees and their management wanted "The next single to be “She Hangs Out”. Studio managment used the kerfuffle to fire Kirshner because he was making too much money off of their project and they wanted more of the money for themselves.
On the Monkees first album all four of the members are listed as playing guitar. They needed a drummer and Mike and Peter were accomplished guitar players and Davy was the cute one so Micky became the drummer despite singing lead on most of the songs.
A little trivia is that Davy Jones appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show the same night the Beatles made their Sullivan Show debut.

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Actually, I have that first album. If I recall correctly, there are no actual musical credits on it. Underneath the four Monkees’ bios, it says “sings and plays guitar” for Mike, Peter, and Davy, but it says “sings and plays drums” for Micky.

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Kirschner also thought “Sugar, Sugar” would be a perfect song for Davy Jones to sing- he guaranteed it would be a #1 hit.

And he was right, as the Archies proved a while later.

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Another prefab band. But an excellent one because Redding and Mitchell could keep up with Hendrix.

The Holy Modal Rounders should have been more commercially successful. I mean, they, at one time or another, included Skunk Baxter and Sam Shepard, and put “Boobs a Lot” on their aptly-named album, Good Taste is Timeless. How could that not get airplay?